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THE PROGRESS 

OF 

TotlR HCJNDREB YEARS 

IN 

THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 

THE FASCINATING STORY 

OF THE ^A'ONDERFUL GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF 

QtiR Great American Cities, 

Prepared under the Supervision of their Respective Anthorities : 

WITH 

GRAPHIC HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF ALL 

THE STATES AND TERRITORIES, 

WHOSE REMARKABLE AND RAPID ADVANCEMENT IN THE ARTS AND SCIENCES, IN EDUCATION 
AND ARCHITECTURE, IN INDUSTRIES, MANUFACTURES AND POPULATION HAVE EXCITED 
THK WONDER OF THE ENTIRE WORLD. — A RECOItD FROM THE EARLIEST 
TLEiMENTS TO THE PRESENT TIME, IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER, TRACI 
EACH STEP IN THE FORMATION OP THE REPUBLIC, AND EXHIi 
ITING THE CHARACTER, VARIETY AND STRENGTH OF ' 

THE ELEMENTS COMBINED IN THE FORMATION Tfl A H 1 '^ IPPI 

OF 

THE GREATEST NATION EVER FJUNDED ON POPULAR RLG;] 

f/ BY 

BENSON J. LOSSING, LL. 

AUTHOIi OF 'PICTORIAL FIELD BOOK OF THE REVOLUTION," "THE WAR OF 1812, " "THE CIVIL WAR,"" A HISTOIiY OF 

THE UNITED STATES FOR SCHOOLS,"' "LIVES OF EMINENT AMERICANS," "THE HOME OP WASH- ) 

INGTON," "LOSSING's BOOK OF THE HirDSON," "OUR COUNTRY," ETC. ;X 

mL^aSTRATED 

WITH CHOICE ENGRAVINGS OF PLACES OF HISTORIC INTEREST IN OUR GREAT CITIES, THEIE TRIUMPHS 

IN ARCHITECTURE AND ENGINEERING ; WITH THE ARMS OF THE SEVERAL STATES 

AND TERRITORIES, AND PORTRAITS OF THEIR FIRST GOVERNORS. 




r,0- 



NEW YORK: 

GAY BROTHEES & CO. 

30, 32, 34 READE STREET. 
1890. 






COPYRIGHTED i8go 

BY 

GAY BROTHERS & CO 



PREFACE. 

The present volume delineates four centuries' achievements in the 
Great Republic of the Western World. From the time Christopher 
Columbus set foot on the shores of this mighty hemisphere until the 
present, the entire Continent has been busy making history, particu- 
larly that portion occupied by the people of the United States, whose 
wonderful progress needs to be viewed from a standpoint totally dif- 
ferent from that to be found in a formal or consecutive history of the 
Nation, the salient features of which are more or less familiar to all. 

The aim of the present work is to enable readers to separately 
view the marvellous story of these four centuries' achievements of our 
country as unfolded in the history and growth of each of our great mod- 
ern cities, and in that of the several States and Territories of the Union ; 
therefore, one of the objects of this undertaking Is to throw upon the 
canvas a moving panorama of the life and development of the great 
centres of population, where our social, political, commercial, and in- 
dustrial activities are to be seen In their highest and grandest forms. 

Cities rivalling in commercial interests and material prosperity the 
proudest capitals of the Eastern Hemisphere, have sprung up and 
developed, as if by magic, from one extreme to the other of our broad 
land. While they may not boast of the same antiquity they are rap- 
idly vying with the cities of the Old World In architectural adorn- 
ment and the cultivation of the liberal arts. Their grand advance- 
ment in science and education. In architecture and enoflneerlnp-, in art 
and social refinement. In commercial enterprises and material progress, 
and all that adds to the civilization of the age, have tended to make 
these cities the marvel of the times In which we live. As the tides of 
population have set westward the new cities have grown to immense 
size even within the last decade, while the older cities of our Atlantic 
and Gulf States have kept pace with the civilization of the cen- 
tury In every department of modern life. These sketches necessarily 
include a graphic view of the Capital of our Nation, and that of each 
of the States and Territories, wherein are located the halls of leels- 



viii PREFACE. 

lation and of justice, thus displaying a grand galaxy of republican 
governments and institutions such as have never been presented else- 
where in the history of the world. 

The careful examination of the unparalleled progress exhibited 
in the history of our great cities is important, but none the less so is 
a view of the achievements presented in the history of each State and 
Territory composing this grand Union as a whole, in the order in 
which they were settled or admitted into the family of Stc.tes. There- 
fore, picturesque sketches of a historical and descriptive character 
have been introduced, showing at a glance the wonderful part which 
each has acted in the national drama, while giving a definite concep- 
tion of the achievements in which all have nobly shared. There is a 
great need of such a new presentation from this view-point ; in the fact 
that many readers, who are familiar with the history of the Nation as 
a whole, are not cognizant with that of the several States, and even 
lack information respecting their own. 

There could be no more favorable period than the present in which 
to consider the relation of each State to the fabric that our fathers 
erected upon so firm a foundation. It will be found that these com- 
prehensive accounts of our cities, States, and Territories furnish in 
new and interesting form the cream of the history of the achievements 
of the people of the whole country up to the present time. This 
plan has many great advantages over any consecutive national history, 
of which this may be mentioned : it furnishes a knowledge of the 
whole country through a study of its component parts, each sketch 
presented being sufficiently brief and graphic not to repel the reader, 
but allure him to a frequent perusal of the work until he has completed 
the whole ; by the plan adopted he is enabled to better secure and re- 
tain in his mind each subject, as pictured separately, without the con- 
fusion incident to the narration of events pertaining to other portions 
of the country. 

The style in which the work is presented gives it a fascination and 
interest that will attract the attention of the oeneral reader, while the 
historic value of its statements makes it indispensable as a book of 
reference for the student and for all who desire to keep well informed 
upon the rapid advancement of our Great Republic of the West dur- 
ing its four hundred years' progress. 



TESTIMONIALS. 



Mat/or\s Offlce, Nashville, Teuu. 
Gentleintu : — Your letter enrloshu/ a brief hist.ori/ nf Nashville eatue 
duly to hand, for iviiich I thank i/oii ; it has Iteeit referred to a eouimittee 
of f/eiitleniett whom wr. have ort/anized, on the siihjerf, and in a few dat/s f 
will be able to re/tort to ytta the result of their work. 

Yours truly, 
THO'ilAS A. Ki:ilVHEVAL, Maijor. 

From the Mamifactareni' and Mecha/nics' Ass'on of Nanlvvllle^ Tenn. 
Gentlerrien : — / have received your second proof oil the City of Nashmlle. 
I have examined it in all its details with great care and can vouch for the 
correctness of its statements. T regard, it as complete, satisfactory, and as good 
and thorough a sketch as could he desired. 

WM. STOCKELL, President. 

PITKIN C. WRIGHT, Secretary. 
THOMAS A. KERCH F.VAL, Mayor. 



Attest ] 



Mayor's Office, Hamilton, Ont. 
Gentlemen.— Tn, answer to yours of the 26th inst. with enclosed 
shetcJb of Hainilfon I wowJd, sa,i/, it is very complete for the space occn- 
pied, and if the rest of the work is as correct it will be a valuable book. 

I am, very trulj/ i/ours, 

ALEX McKAY, Mayor. 

Ottu\v:i, Ontario. 
Oentleineii :— Tlie THayor lisis made some corre<'tions ol' importance 
in yonr sketch of the City of Ottawa, partieiilarly in referen«'e to tra<le, 
population, etc. Yonrs truly, 

yglf. p. I..ETT, City <:ierlc. 

Mayor's Office, Buffalo, N. Y. 
Gentlemen : — In accordance with your request, I have devoted 
some little time to the preparation of an article on the City of 
(Buffalo, which I transmit herewith, and can assure you of its cor^ 
redness, and would say that it has the approval of His Honor the 
Mayor, who is a representative business man, a meinher and ex= 
President of the (Board of Trade, President of the Gertr.an Insurance 
Co:, and the head of the firm of Philip (Beecher &^ Co., Wholesale 
Grocers. Yours truly ^ 

HENRY S. THAYER, Mayor's Secretary. 

I am muoii pl'eeti^ed iivitti tlie artiole on tlie City of Wilming-ton, 1>cl. 

C. It. RUOUES, IVIayor. 



Mayor's Office, St. John, New Brunswick. 

i.'d ■leA^i.'d^. rMi^uid /u^/j^^ 

T. S. BORES BE VEBER, Mayor. 

Gentlemen : Salt Lake City Corporation, Reeorders Office. 

His Honor the Mayor, Mr. Francis A rmstrong, has assigned me the 
duty of examining the proof-sheet of sketch of our city. The Mayor directs me 
to say lie regrets the delay, and ivill foriuard the proof, with such correctioiis 
as he deems appropriate, ivithin a day or tivo. 

Yours very respectfully, 

HEBER M. WELLS, Recorder. 

Mayor s Office, Wilmington, fJ. C. 

Gentlemen :— Yours of the 17tki, ^vitli sketch, received, and find the 

contents correct. 

Very respectfully, 

K. D. HUIvIv, Nlayor. 

Dear Sirs: Taxing District, Shelby Connty, Tenn. 

li¥v: have corrected a fe-fv items in the proof yon sent us of IVIempM^is 
and have returned same to you. M'e also send you some reports from 
which you can get a more extended notice of our city, its financial 
condition, etc. Xhese reports of the various departments of our city ^vill 
he convincing proof that >ve would like to have a true and correct 
publication. Respectfully yours, 

DAVID I». IIADDli:^, President. 

Taxing District, Shelby County, Tenn. 

Dear Sirs :— The sketch of the City of iVIemphis is all satisfactory. 

I am yours truly. 

DAVID P. HADDEN, President. 

Dear Sirs: City of Charleston, S. C, Executive Depart imnt. 

I beg leave to enrlo.se you herewith the corrected sketch of the City 
of Charleston, and to say that there is nothing further to suggest. The sketch 
is admirable and concise. Mayor Courtenay will be pleased to include in 
the City's Library a copy of so valuable a work as this will no doubt be, 

Yours respectfully, 

R. G. NEALE, for the Mayor. 



1'lie s^ketcli as it now stands is correct; tlie Mayoi- directs me to 
tliank you for your courtesy and kindness. 

Very Respectfully, 

FRANK E. RESARER, Clerk of CouncU. 

^ke. aHicle ati ^f^^entan, J^._f., -J' tkiiik lA cat^^cct, q^ uilLL 
lie Lultiz tke. addLtLan& and ca/^t'ectLatis. _f kaiie made an ike. fzi'aaf. 

_fakii /llfaliiei'tati, Jliaij^ai'. 

^Uoui, 5R-ctm oC HDotumwi* l6 a pait, am>i<iiec^ i^tatcmcut o^ out H^Lti-. 

CHAS. G. LORD, 

S&cretobry Columbus Board of Trade. 

tj- a^m^ nt^o^^U t-'i^toLuy too^co'i^L', 

It uuould, he driffLcuuit to impTove on uJhcut youu say 
in this sJcetoth ahouut TToy, JT. Y. 

EDMUND FITZGERALD, Mayor. 



I think tke article en l/vansvilie, Ind., i« very §atisfkc<tory and 

cannot be impreved on. 

J. H. DA^KETTELL, Mayor. 

You have acimirdhhj succeeded in crowdinr/ a vast quantUy of useful 
infermaUon in a very limited sp^ce. 

GEO. M. GARDNER, Mayor of Cleveland. 

In my opinion tlie sk«*cli of Manchester, M. H., is meritorions, com- 
prehensive, and satisfactory. ^^^ ^ SXEARMS, IWayor. 



Tour description of the City of Detroit is generally correct 

J. A. WALSH, Mayor s Secretary. 
Mayor's Office, Davenport, Iowa. 
The article on the City of Davenport seems to be all right. 

E. C. CLEESSER, Mayor of Davenport. 
Mayor's Office, Milwaukee. 
Gentlemeti • — Yours of the 29th ultimo, enclosing corrected proof of sketch 
of this city, is received. The Mayor wishes me to say to you that the sketch 
as now written is quite fair. Yours respectfully, 

F. PARINGER, Secretary. 

Mayor's Office, Kansas City. 

I have noted the exact assessed valuation of city property for 

188^ and 1886 — see corrections on proof — and regard your article as 

entirely truthful. 

HENRY C. KUMFF, Mayor. 

From the Mayor of Petersburgh, Va. 
No material changes can he made in your proof, as it is correct. 

Mayofs Ojffice, Kingston, Ont. 
Gentlemen : 

I have Just returned to the city and find your sTcetch of it. 
I heliem it to he correct and a very fair description ; as suggested I 
ham slightly amended it. 

Tours truly, 

JOHN L. WHITING, Mayor. 

Mayor's Office, Quebec. 

Gentlemen: — Enclosed I send you back your article on Quebec. 
It is as oood an article as could be desired ; it gives a very fair and 
correct idea of our city. Vours truly, 

F. LAiMGELEIR, Mayor of Quebec. 

Mayor's Office, Montreal, Can. 
Gentlemen : — I return to you herewith the proof of the Historical Sketch of Montreal ; 
you will also find the corrections made on the subject by our City Auditor. I also mail 
you to-day a couple of small pamphlets, containing all the necessary information. 

Yours truly, 

H. LEAUQRAN, Mayor. 



GONTENTS. 



Preface . 

List of Illustrations 



Great Cities of the United States. 



PAGK 

vii 
xxiii 



ALBANY, NEW YORK, . 
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, 

BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, 
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, 
BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, 
BUFFALO, NEW YORK, . 

CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, 
CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA, 
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS. 
CINCINNATI, OHIO, , 
CLEVELAND, OHIO, . 
COLUMBUS, OHIO. . 

DAVENPORT, IOWA, 
DAYTON, OHIO, . 
DENVER, COLORADO, 
DES MOINES, IOWA, 
DETROIT, MICHIGAN, 

EVANSVILLE, INDIANA, 



172 
206 

130 
90 

71 
176 

96 
191 
113 
138 
135 
185 

183 

2T2 
189 
231 
122 

182 



X CONTENTS. 



PAGE 



GALVESTON, TEXAS 210 

HAMPTON, VIRGINIA 227 

HARRISBURG, PENNSYLVANIA, ......... 180 

HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT 166 

INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, i37 

JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA 198 

JERSEY CITY, NEW JERSEY 74 

KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI 181 

KEOKUK, IOWA 221 

LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY I34 

LOWELL, MASSACHUSETTS I74 

LYNN, MASSACHUSETTS . 170 

MANCHESTER, NEW HAMPSHIRE 160 

MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE, 187 

MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN, 143 

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA i53 

MOBILE, ALABAMA, . .• 201 

NASHVILLE. TENNESSEE 202 

NEWARK, NEW JERSEY, 75 

NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT, 164 

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA 99 

NEW YORK, NEW YORK 56 

OMAHA, NEBRASKA 184 

PETERSBURG, VIRGINIA 188 

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, 79 

PITTSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA, i45 

PORTLAND, MAINE 161 

PORTLAND. OREGON .228 

PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY. 233 

PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND i57 



CONTEiNTS. xi 

PAGE 

READING, PENNSYLVANIA 214 

RICHMOND, VIRGINIA 219 

ROCHESTER, NEW YORK, 209 

ST. AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA, 223 

ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI 125 

ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA 149 

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, 214 

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS, 193 

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA 107 

SAVANNAH, GEORGIA 204 

SCR ANTON, PENNSYLVANIA i75 

SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS, 169 

SYRACUSE, NEW YORK, 169 

TOLEDO, OHIO 186 

TRENTON, NEW JERSEY, 179 

TROY, NEW YORK 171 



UTICA, NEW YORK, 



WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, 35 

WHEELING, WEST VIRGINIA 213 

WILMINGTON, DELAWARE 200 

WILMINGTON, NORTH CAROLINA 179 

WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS 160 



xii CONTENTS. 



The Great Republic of the West, 

Introduction, 237 

VIRGINIA. 

The Oldest Commonwealth — Boundaries — Area — Natural Features and Resources 
— Failure of Raleigh's Effort for Colonization. — The London Company — The Plymouth 
Company — Captain John Smith — The First Church^amestown — Various Disasters 
— Character of Settlers — New Charter — Continued Distress — Arrival of Lord De la 
Warr — First Representative Assembly — Establishment of Homes — Introduction of 
Slavery — A Written Constitution — New Settlement — Indian Troubles — Sickness and 
Famine — Civil War — Hostilities with the French — Representation in Continental Con- 
gress — -Adoption of State Constitution — " State Sovereignty " — An Influential State — 
The War of 1812 — John Brown — Secession — Reorganization — Effects of the War — 
Recovery Therefrom — " The Old Dominion," 239 

NEW YORK. 

"The Empire State" — Boundaries — Area — Population — Scenery and Climate — 
History — Henry Hudson — Dutch Traders — Charters — " Iroquois Confederacy " — 
" Dutch West India Company " — The Walloons — Purchase of Manhattan Island — The 
Patroons — Early Governors — Surrender to the English^Political Troubles — French 
and Indian Invasion — Freedom of the Press — Struggles for Self-government — During 
the Revolution— The State Constitution — Development of Resources — Canal Systems 
— The use of Steam Power for Navigation — The War of 181 2 — AboUtion of Slavery — 
Revision of the Constitution — The Civil War — Population — Industries — Education — 
Charities — Books, Magazines, and Newspapers, 251 

MASSACHUSETTS. 

Boundaries— Area — Climate — Early Explorations— The Plymouth Company — First 
Permanent Settlement — Organization of Government — Privations and Sickness — Other 



CONTENTS. xiii 

Settlements — Dissolution of Partnership with London Merchants — New Organization 
— The " Massachusetts Bay Company " — Religious Intolerance — Indian Troubles — Call 
for Surrender of Charter— Commission to England — Investigation of Affairs of the 
Colony — King Philips' War — English Rule — A New Charter — Invasions by French 
and Indians — Provincial Congress — End of Royal Authority — Organization of the Army 
— Adoption of the State Constitution — Shay's Rebellion — War of 1812 — In the Civil 
War — Manufactures — Education — Population — Emigration, 261 

NEW HAMPSHIRE. 

Location — Area — Population- -Natural Features — Discovery — Settlement — Annex- 
ation to Massachusetts — Subsequent Separation — Dispute Regarding Western Boun- 
dary — Indian Depredations — Provincial Congress — Organization of State Government 
— In the War for Independence — State Constitution — Ratification of the National Con- 
stitution — Seat of Government — Loyalty to the Union — Manufactures — Education, 270 

CONNECTICUT. 

Boundaries — Area — Population — Aspect — Discovery — Settlement — Withdrawal of 
the Dutch — First Permanent Settlement — Subsequent Arrivals — First Written Consti- 
tution — The Pequod War — Settlement at New Haven — Formation of Government — 
Union of the Colonies — The Colonial Charter — Refusal to Surrender — The Legislature 
— Stringent Laws — In the Colonial Wars — Confl-ict with the Government of Pennsyl- 
vania — In the War for Independence — The War of 18 12 — The Hartford Convention — 
In the Civil War — Manufactures — Education — Characteristics of the People, . . 276 

MARYLAND. 

Location — Area — Population — Natural Divisions — General Appearance — Early 
Settlements — Government — Conflicting Claims — Dissensions — Civil War — A Period of 
Repose — Religious Feud — In the Revolution — French and Indian War — State Govern- 
ment — War of 1 81 2 — In the Civil War — Manufacturing — Transportation Facilities — 
Education, 286 

RHODE ISLAND. 

The Smallest State — Boundaries — Area— Population — Natural Features— Early Ex- 
plorers — The Stone Tower at Newport — Roger Williams — Settlement at Providence — 
Government of the Colony — Other Settlements— Establishment of the Commonwealth 
—Growing Intolerance — King Philip's War — Seizure and Restoration of the Charter — 
Exclusion from the New England Confederacy— Patriotism of the People — During the 



xiv ■ CONTENTS. i 

Revolution — Admission to the Union — The War of 1812 — Efforts to obtain a State 

Constitution — Dorr's Rebellion — Adoption of the Constitution — In the Civil War — j 

Agriculture and Manufactures — Education, 293 

DELAWARE. ] 

Area — Boundaries — Population — Natural Features — Derivation of Name — Discov- | 

ery — Settlement — Claims of Lord Baltimore — Surrender of Territory to William Penn I 

— Early Government — Favoring Independence — Organization of a State Government . 

— In the Revolutonary War — Captain Caldwell — The War of 181 2 — Loyalty to the 1 

Union — Fruit-growing^ — Manufactures — Education, 299 i 

NORTH CAROLINA. ! 

Boundaries — Area — Rank — Population — Seaboard — Surface — The Dismal Swamp 1 
— Discovery and Settlement — Roanoke .Island — Religious and Political Communities — 
Revolts — Indian Troubles — Division of the Province — The " Regulators '' — Provincial 
Convention — State Constitution — In the Revolution — Secession — During the Civil War 
— Re-organization — New Constitution — Industries — Mineral Wealth — Railroads — Edu- 
cation — " The Tar State," 304 I 

I 
I 

NEW JERSEY. 

Location — Area — Population — Rank — Natural Features — Early History — In the 
Revolution — State Constitution — In the Civil War — Refusal to ratify the Fifteenth 

Amendment — Industries — Railroads — Education, 312 

1 

SOUTH CAROLINA. ; 

Location — Area — Population — Natural Features — L^iscovery and Settlement — Orig- I 

inal (xrants — Establishment of Government — -Political and Religious Dissensions — Ex- | 

peditions against the Spaniards and Indians — Attempt to Establish a State Chfirch — j 

Attack upon Charleston — War with Indians — A new Government Organized — Separa- j 

tion from North Carolina — Resistance to British Oppression — In the Revolution — State I 

Constitution — Slavery — '' Nullification " Movement — War Averted — Secession — Open- I 

ing of the Civil War — Sufferings During the War — Reconstruction — Climate — Educa- 1 

tion, 318 j 

PENNSYLVANIA. j 

Location — Area — Population — Natural Features — Claims of the Dutch — Grant to i 

William Penn — Treaty with the Indians — Purchase of Land of Swedish Settlers — ' 

Founding of the City of Philadelphia — The " Charter of Liberties" — Penn deprived of i 

I 
I 



CONTENTS. XV 

his Colonial Rights — Troubles in the Colony — Reinstatement of Penn — A New Charter 
— Withdrawal of the Three Lower Counties — " Mason and Dixon's Line " — French and 
Indian War — In Favor of Independence — The Continental Congress — Declaration of 
Independence — Organization of the State Government — Military Events — National 
Constitution — The "Whiskey Insurrection" — The War of 1812 — Internal Improve- 
ments — In the Civil War — Manufactures — Coal Fields — Petroleum — Railroads — Edu- 
cation — "The Keystone State," 325 

VERMONT. 

Location — -Area — Population Natural Features — Climate — Discovery and Settle- 
ment — Indian Battle Ground — Territorial Boundaries — Bitter Controversy — Organiza- 
tion of a State Government — Diplomacy — Settlement of Land Claims — Admission to the 
Union — The War of 181 2 — Aid to Insurrection in Canada — In the Civil War — Agri- 
culture — Manufactures — Education — Population — " The Green Mountain State," 334 

GEORGIA. 

Location — Area — Population — Natural Features — Originally Belonged to the Caro- 
linas — Claimed by both Spain and England — The " Colony of Georgia " — Settlement at 
Savannah — Conference with Indians — New Arrivals — War Threatened by the Spaniards 
— Governor Oglethorpe's Repulse of the Invaders — Practical Introduction of Slavery 
- — Establishment of a General Assembly — In the Revolutionary War — State Constitu- 
tions — Indian Troubles — Secession — Losses by the War — Under Military Rule — A New 
Constitution— Re-admission to the Union — Agriculture — Manufactures — Education — 
" The Empire State of the South," 34i 

KENTUCKY. 

Location — Area — Population — Surface — Orginal Inhabitants — First White Visitors 
— Daniel Boone — Explorations — Settlements — Formed a Territory — Indian Invasion 
— In the Revolution — Proposed Separation from Virginia — Dissatisfaction with the 
Government — First Public Advocate of Secession — Various Conventions — Admission 
to the Union — The War of 181 2 — Progress— In the Civil War — Agriculture — Live Stock 
— Manufactures — Railroads — Education — " The Corn-Cracker State," .... 35° 

TENNESSEE. 

Location — Area — Population — Natural Features — Union with the Carolinas — War 
"with the Cherokees — Political Disturbances — Secession from North Carolina — Failure 
of the Revolutionary Movement — Organization of a Territorial Government — Admission . 



xvi CONTENTS. 

as a State — The War of 1812 — Secession — During the War — Re-organization — Agri- 
culture—Industries — Railroads— Education— " The Big Bend State," .... 358 

OHIO. 

Location — Boundaries — Area — Population— Rank— Aspect — Discovery — Explora- 
tions — Conflicting Claims of French and English — French and Indian War — The 
"Western Reserve" — Organization of a Territory — Influ.x of People — Various Settle- 
ments — State Constitution — The Seat of Government — War of 181 2 — In the Civil War 
— Agriculture and Manufactures — Railroads — Education — " The Buckeye State," 366 

LOUISIANA. 

Location — Area — Population — Features of the Country — Boundaries — Discovery 
by Europeans — Early Explorers — La Salle takes formal Possession of the Country for 
France — Subsequent Expeditions — The Province Granted to Crozat — Failure of his 
Enterprise — Founding the City of New Orleans — Various Speculations — Failure of the 
Enterprises — The Province Ceded to Spain — Its Restoration to France — Its Purchase 
by the United States — Admission to the Union — Invasion During the War of 181 2 — 
New Constitution — Secession of the State — Re-organization of State Government — 
Re-admission to the Union — Agricultural Productions — Education — "The Creole 
State," 373 

INDIANA. 
Rank — Population — Location — Area — Aspect — First White Visitors — Religious 
and Commercial Stations— In the War for Independence — War With Indians — Estab- 
lishment of a Territory — Efforts to Introduce Slavery— Indian Confederacy — Increas- 
ing Hostilities — Open War — War of 181 2 — Admission to the Union — Rapid Immigra- 
tion — Internal Improvements — Financial Disaster — Recuperation — In the Civil War 
; — Agriculture — Manufactures — Education — " The Hoosier State," 382 

[ MISSISSIPPI. 

Location — Area — Population Boundaries — Natural Features — Explorations by 
De Soto — French Explorers — First Colony — Later Settlements — Cruelty to Indians — 
Their Revenge — The Natchez Tribe Exterminated — End of the French Dominion — 
Formation of a Territory — State Constitution — Secession — Re-organization — Agricul- 
ture — Education — " The Bayou State," 389 

ILLINOIS. 
Location— Boundaries — Rank — General Aspect— First European Settlers — Jesuit 
Missions — Military Posts Established by the French — The English Obtain Possession 



CONTENTS. xvii 

— Territorial Area — In the Revolution— Indian Troubles — The War of 1812 — Admis- 
sion to the Union — Removal of the Indians — Mormon Troubles — Chicago — Agricul- 
tural Productions — Manufactures — Railroads — Education, 397 

ALABAMA. 

Location — Area — Population — Boundaries — Surface — Indian Inhabitants, their 
Character and Customs — Cruelty of De Soto and His Followers — Settlement of Mobile 
— Other Settlements — Transfer to England — Gained by the United States — Indian 
Troubles — Destruction of the Creek Nation — Increase of I'ojnilation — Territorial 
Organization — Secession — Organization of the Confederate Government — During the 
Civil War — Re-organization — Agriculture — Railroads — Education, 404 

MAINE. 

Area — Boundaries — Population — Natural Features — Discovery — Efforts to Found 
a Colony— Disputed Territory — Charter Obtained — The Region Claimed by Massa- 
chusetts — Hostilities of the French and Indians — William Phipps — In the Revolution 
— War of 1812 — Separation from Massachusetts — Admission to the Union — Invasion 
in the Civil War — Colony of Swedes — Agriculture — Lumber Inte ests — Fisheries — 
Railroads — Commerce — Education — "The Pine-Tree State," 412 

MISSOURI. 

Location — Area — Rank — Boundaries — Natural Features — Discovery and Settle- 
ment^ — Early History — The Slavery Question — The Compromise Bill — Admission to 
the Union — Indian Disturbances — Progress— In the Civil War — A New State Consti- 
tution — Natural Resources — Railroadj> — Education — Derivation yA the Name of the 
State, 41H 

ARKANSAS. 

Location — Area— Boundaries — Population — Natural Features — Discovery — Subse- 
quent Explorations — Early Settlements — Territorial Government — State Constitution 
Framed — Admission to the Unions-Secession — Re-organization of the State Govern- 
ment — A New Constitution — Re-admission to the Union — Agricultural Productions — 
Manufactures — Education — " The Bear State," 425 

MICHIGAN. 

Boundaries — Area — Population — Characteristics — Discovery and Settlement — 
Jesuit Missions — English Succeed the French — Indian Treachery — The War of 181 2 



xviii CONTENTS. 

— Sale of Public Lands — Organization of the Territorial Government — Admission as a 
State— In the Civil War — Agriculture— Mineral Wealth— Live Stock— Manufactures 
—Railroads— Education— " The Wolverine State," 43° 



FLORIDA. 

Location — Area — Population — Boundaries — Natural Features — Discovery— Search 
for the Fountain of Youth — Hostility of the Indians — A Disastrous Expedition — First 
Permanent Settlement — Religious Persecutions — The Claim of the Spaniards Dis- 
puted —The Country Ceded to Great Britain — Colony of New Smyrna — Tyranny of 
the Founder — During the Revolution — Re-ceded to Spain — In the War of 1812 — 
Ceded to the United States — The Seminole AVar — Admission to the Union — Seces- 
sion — Re-admission to the Union — Agricultural Productions — "The Peninsula 
State," 437 

TEXAS. 

The Largest State — Location — Area — Boundaries — Population — Surface and Soil 
— First White Colony — Jesuit Missions — Continued Indian Hostilities — Spanish 
Opposition to French and American Occupation — A Grant to Moses Austin — Revolu- 
tions — The Alamo — Independence Secured — Samuel Houston Elected President of 
the Republic — Annexation to the United States — Secession — ^Re-organization of the 
Government — Re-admission to the Union — Agricultural Productions — Manufactures 
— Education — " The Lone Star State," 445 

IOWA. 

Location — Boundaries — Area— Population — Rank — Natural Features — Settlement 
— The Black Hawk War — Various Colonies — Organization of the Territory — Admis- 
sion as a State — The Seat of Government — In the Civil War — Agriculture — Live 
Stock — Railroads — Education — " The Hawkeye State," 45 ^ 

WISCONSIN. 

Location — Area — Population — Boundaries — Natural Features — Early Settlements 
— Missionary Operations by the Jesuits — The Domain Transferred from the French 
to the English — Ceded to the United States — Settlement at Green Bay — The Black 
Hawk War — Territorial Organization — Rapid Growth in Population — A State Con- 
stitution Framed — Admission to the Union — Loyalty During the Civil War — Agricul- 
tural Productions — Manufactures — Railroads — Education — "The Badger State," 457 



CONTENTS. xix 

CALIFORNIA. 
Location — Boundaries — Area — Population — Natural Features — Discovery — Earli- 
est Settlements — Franciscan Missions — Destruction of the Missions by the Mexican 
Government — Attempt to Expel Americans— The Mexicans Driven Out — Indepen- 
dence Proclaimed — The Territory Ceded to the LTnited States— Discovery of Gold — 
Great Intlux of Lawless Adventurers — Organization of Government — Slavery For- 
bidden — Petition to Become a State — Long Delay in Congress — Admission to the 
LTnion — " Vigilance Committees " — Agricultural Productions — Mineral Wealth — Man- 
ufactures — Railroads— Education — Foreign Commerce — "The Golden State," . .^163 

MINNESOTA. 

Location — Boundaries — Area — Population — Surface — Climate — First European 
Visitors — Establishment of Fur-trading Posts by the French — Exploration by Jonathan 
Carver — Subsequent Explorations — Inception and Growth of the Lumber Industry- 
Rapid Increase in Population — Admission to the Union — Patriotic Devotion in the 
Civil War — The Sioux War — Agricultural Productions — Manufacturing Interests — 
Railroads — Education — Proposed Public Parks — " The Gopher State," . . . 471 

OREGON. 

Location — Area — Population — Boundaries — Natural Features — First European 
Visitor — Discovery of the Columbia River — Exploration of the Country — First Per- 
manent Settlement — Controversy between the United States and Great Britain — A 
Temporary Arrangement — Formation of New Colonies — Settlement of Dispute Re- 
garding Boundaries — Territorial Government — Division of the Territory — Admission 
as a State — Increase in Population — War with the Modoc Indians — Agriculture — Live 
Stock — Fisheries — Manufactures — Railroads — Education — Derivation of the Name of 
the State, 478 

KANSAS. 

The Central State — Boundaries — Area — Surface — First European Visitants — 
EarHest Settlement — The Missouri Compromise — Efforts to Organize a Territory — 
Discussion in Congress — The " Irrepressible Conflict " — Extensive Immigration — 
Attempt to Introduce Slavery — Foreign Interference with Elections — The Legislature 
Illegally Chosen — Convention of Actual Settlers — New State Constitution — Great 
Disorder — Congressional Investigation — The Lecompton Constitution — Action of 
Congress — Armed Conflict — Restoration of Peace — Admission to the Union — In the 
Civil War — Agricultural and Manufacturing Interests — Coal Fields — Railroads — Edu- 
cation — "The Garden of the West," 485 



XX CONTENTS. 

WP:sT VIRGINIA. 

Location — Area — Population — Aspect — Loyalty to the Union — Separation from 
Virginia — Admission to the Union — In the Civil War — Rapid Development — Agricul- 
ture — Manufactures — Education — "The Pan-Handle State," 492 

NEVADA. 

Rank — Location — Area — Population — Surface — General Aspect — Cession to the 

United States — Territorial Organization — Admission as a State — Mineral Wealth — ■ 

Discovery of Silver in the Washoe Region — Agriculture — Live Stock — Manufactures 

— Education — Signification of the Name of the State, 496 

NEBRASKA. 

Location —Area — Population — Natural Features — First Exploration and Settle- 
ment—Organization of the Territory — Original Area —Division of the Territory — 
Admission as a State — Increase in Population — Agriculture — Live Stock — Manufac- 
tures—Railroads — Education — Meaning of the Name, 500 

COLORADO. 

Location —Area — Boundaries— Natural Features — Discovered by a Spanish Ad- 
venturer — Explorations by Officers of the United States Army — Discovery of Gold — 
Attempt to Establish Civil Government — Territorial Organization — Admission to the 
Union as a State— Mining Interests — Live Stock— Manufacturing Establishments — ■ 
Railroads — ?xiucation — " The Centennial State." 503 

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 

Area— Location— The City of Washington— Erection of Public Buildings— Ap- 
pearance and Condition of the City in iSoo— Government of the District — Dimin- 
ished Area— Education— Population, 506 

INDIAN TERRITORY. 

Formation of the Territorj — Extent in 1834 —Present Area— Location — Boundaries 
— Natural Features— Inhabitants— Form of Government— In the Civil War — Progress 
in Civilization — Agricultural and Live Stock Interests— The Leading Tribes— Educa- 
tion — Financial Condition — Pojnilation, eoq 



CONTENTS. ..xi 

NEW MEXICO. 

Early Inhabitants — Location — Boundaries — Area — Natural Features — Spanish Oc- 
cupation — Indian Troubles — The Country Conquered by the United States — Loyalty 

to the Union — Territorial Organization — Agriculture — Live Stock — Manufactures 

Education — Mineral Wealth, rj2 

UTAH. 

Original Inhabitants — Location — Population — Character of the Region — Cession 
to the United States — Settlement by Mormons — Growth of Salt Lake City — Conflict 
with the National Government — Agriculture — Manufactures — Financial Condition — 
Education, • cjc 

WASHINGTON. 

Location — Area — Population — Natural Features — Indian Occupation — Discovery 
and Exploration by White Men — First Permanent Settlement — Organization of the 
Territory — Islands in Washington Sound — Agriculture — Manufactures — Mining — 
Lumber — The Fishing Interests — Education — Admission as a State, . . . . 518 

DAKOTA. 

Location — Boundaries — Area — Population — Surface — The Indian Inhabitants — 
Cession of Land to the United States — War — First Permanent Settlement by Whites 
— Territorial Organization — Changes of Boundaries — Increase of Population — Agricul- 
ture — Manufactures — Mining — Education — Division of the Territory — Admission to 
the Union as Two States, 521 

ARIZONA. 

Location — Boundaries — Area — Population — Indian Inhabitants — Natural Features 
— Spanish Exploration and Settlement — Purchase by the United States — Organized 
as a Territory — Change of Area — Indian Tradition — Mineral Wealth — Agriculture — 
Education, 525 

IDAHO. 

Position — Boundaries — Area — Population^ — Natural Features — Early Explorers — 
Settlement — Formation of a Territory — Original Area — Mineral Wealth — Agriculture 
— Education— Pronunciation of the Name, 527 

MONTANA 

Location — Area — Boundaries— Surface— Climate— Settlement — Organization as a 



xxii CONTENTS. 

Territory — Rich Gold Mine — Agriculture — Live Stock — Manufactures — Education 
— Derivation of the Name — Admission as a State, 529 

WYOMING. 

Location — Area — Population — Boundaries — Natural Features — ^Yellowstone Na- 
tional Park — First White Visitors — Scientific Exploration — First White Settlement — 
Territorial Organization — Right of Suffrage — Agricultural Resources— Mineral Wealth 
— Education, 531 

ALASKA. 

Location — Islands — Area — Shore Line — Mountains — Yukon River — Climate — Dis- 
covery and Exploration — The Russian Fur Company — Scientific Exploration — Pur- 
chase by the United States — Government and Laws — Minerals — Agricultural Produc- 
tions — Fisheries — Population, 534 

OKLAHOMA. 

Creation of the Territory — Opened for Settlement — Great Excitement^ — The 
Capital — Form and Area — Surface — Climate, . . ■ ■-;36 



LIST or ILLasTRATieNS. 



The First Cabinet, . 
The Present Cabinet, 
National Capitol, 

The White House, Washington, 

The Senate Chamber, 

Treasury Department, 

East Room of the White House, 

The Interior Department, 

The Bureau of Agriculture, . 

The Corcoran Gallery of Art, 

The Smithsonian Institute, 

National Museum Building, . 

The War, State, and Navy Departments 

The Bureau of Engraving and Printing, 

Arlington, Home of R. E. Lee, 

The Soldier's Home, 

Mount Vernon, 

Willard's Hotel, . 

Statues and Monuments, 

Bartholdi Statue— N. Y. Harbor, 

Scene in New York Bay, 

Grand Central Depot and Elevated Railroad, 

Broadway and Trinity Church, 

Fifth Avenue Hotel, 

View in Central Park, . 

The Custom House, 

The Grand Central Depot, 

Ship-Building, 

New York and Brooklyn Bridge, 

Portrait of Benjamin Franklin, 

Autograph Letter of Franklin, 

Independence Hall, Philadelphia, . 

Pennsylvania Railroad, Broad Street Station, 

Centennial Exposition, Main Building, . 



Frontispieces 



New 



York 



XXIV 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Centennial Exposition, Machinery Hall, 

Carpenters' Hall, ..... 

Park Street, Boston, .... 

Custom House, ..... 

The Hancock House, .... 

Passenger Station, Old Colony Railroad, 

Longfellow's Residence, Cambridge, 

Gore Hall, 

New Orleans Scenery, 

Lafayette Square, . 

Cotton Exchange, . 

Boat Club House, . 

Main Building, World's Exposition, 

United States and States' Exhibits Building, 

Comforts of Modern Travel, . 

The Baldwin House, San Francisco, 

War Vessel in the Dry Dock, 

Pullman Building, Chicago, . 

County Court House and City Hall, 

New Board of Trade Building, 

Post-Office and Custom House, 

Union Stock Yards, .... 

The Old Palmer House, 

The New Palmer House, 

Passenger Depot, Chicago and Northwestern 

Main Passenger Depot, .... 

Creve Coeur Lake, .... 

The Court House, St. Louis, . 

The Mercantile Library, ... 

The New Post Office, .... 

Chamber of Commerce, 

Southern Hotel, ..... 

Battle Monument, Baltimore, 

Scene on the River Front, Louisville, . 

Street Scene Before the War, Cleveland, 

Third Street, Cincinnati, 

Fourth Street, ..... 

Milwaukee in i860, .... 



Rail 



oad, 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Horseshoe Curve and Pittsburg, 

Depot, ..... 

The Court House, 

A View of St. Paul, 

Conveniences of Modern Travel, 

Minneapohs, .... 

A Glimpse of Minneapolis, . 

Falls of Minnehaha and Cape Disappointment, 

Providence, from Prospect Terrace, 

First Baptist Church, 

Exchange Place, Providence, 

Portland, Me., Harbor, . 

City Hall and Court House, . 

Albany, N. Y., . 

A View in Buffalo Park, . . . 

View of Davenport in its Early Days, 

Omaha as it Was in 1870, 

Ohio State Capitol, 

City of Denver, .... 

Charleston, ..... 

Views in and around the City of Charleston, 

Mexican Antiquities in San Antonio, Texas, 

Picturesque Features of San Antonio, Texas, 

Garden Street, .... 

View at San Pedro Springs, . 

Opera House, .... 

Mexican Jacal, .... 

Bay Street, Jacksonville, 

A Scene in Mobile, 

A View of Savannah in Former Days, 

City of Atlanta, . , . 

Galveston, ..... 

A View of Salt Lake City, . 

Mormon Temple, Tabernacle, and Assembly Hall 

Main Street, Salt Lake City, . 

State Capitol, Richmond, Va., 

United States Lock and Canal, Keokuk, Iowa, 

The Old Gate, St. Augustine, Fla., 



145 
146 

147 
149 

151 

152 
153 
154 
156 

157 

158 
162 
163 

173 
176 

183 

184 

185 
igo 
191 
192 
194 

195 
196 

196 

197 

197 
199 
201 
205 
207 
21T 

215 
217 
218 
219 
222 
224 



XXVI 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Hampton, Va., with Old Point Comfort, National Soldiers' Home, and Nor- 
mal and Agricultural Institute, ........ 226 

The City of Portland, Oregon, ......... 229 

The College of New Jersey at Princeton, ....... 234 

The Chapel and Murray Hall at Princeton, ....... 235 



Ai^ms of the States and Territories, 



Virginia, . 
New York, 
Massachusetts, 
New Hampshire. 
Connecticut, 
Maryland, 
Rhode Island, 
Delaware, . 
North Carolina, 
New Jersey, 
South Carolina, 
Pennsylvania, 
Vermont, . 
Georgia, 
Kentucky, . 
Tennessee, 
Ohio, . 
Louisiana, . 
Indiana, 
Mississippi, 
Illinois, 
Alabama, . 
Maine, 
Missouri, . 



239 


Arkansas, . 








425 


25' 


Michigan, . 








430 


261 


Florida, 








437 


270 


Texas, 








445 


276 


Iowa, 








45- 


286 


Wisconsin, 








457 


293 


California, . 








463 


299 


Minnesota, 








471 


304 


Oregon, 




* 




47S 


312 


Kansas, 








485 


318 


West Virginia, 








492 


325 


Nevada, 








496 


334 


Nebraska, . 








500 


341 


Colorado, . 








503 


350 


District of Columbia, 






506 


35S 


Indian Territory, 






509 


366 


New Mexico, 






512 


373 


Utah, 








515 


3S2 


Washington, 








518 


389 


Dakota, 








521 


397 


Arizona, 








525 


404 


Idaho, 








527 


412 


Montana, . 








529 


41S 


Wyoming, . 








531 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Portraits, 



Patrick Henr)', . 
George Clinton, 
John Hancock, . 
Josiah Bartlett, . 
Jonathan Trumbull, 
Thomas Johnston, 
Roger Williams, 
Thomas M'Kean, 
William R. Davie, 
William Livingston, 
William Moultrie, 
Thomas Mifflin, 
Thomas Chittenden, 
George Walton, 
Isaac Shelby, 
John Sevier, 
Edward Tiffin, . 
William C. C. Claiborne, 
Jonathan Jennings, 
Bienville, . 
Shadrach Bond, 
De Soto, 
William King, 



240 
252 
262 
271 

277 
287 
294 
300 
305 

319 
326 

335 
342 
351 
359 
367 
374 
383 
390 
398 
405 
413 



Thomas H. Benton, . 

John Law, . 

Stevens Thompson Mason, 

M. D. Mosley, . 

J. Pinkney Henderson, 

Ansell Briggs, 

Nelson Dewey, . 

Peter G. Burnett, 

Henry H. Sibley, 

Sir Francis Drake, 

Charles Robinson, 

Arthur J. Boreman, . 

Henry G. Blaisdell, 

David Butler, 

John L. Routt, . 

James S. Calhoun, 

Brigham Young, 

Isaac I. Stevens, 

William Jayne, . 

Sidney Edgerton, 

John A. Campbell, 

Lovell Harrison Rousseau, 



419 
426 
431 

438 
446 

453 
458 
464 

472 

479 
486 

493 
497 
501 
504 
513 
516 

519 
522 

530 
532 

535 



GREAT CITIES 



OF 



The United States. 



PREFATORY NOTE. 



The Editor of "Great Cities of the United States" desires to 
express his thanks to the Mayors, Boards of Trade, and other officials 
of the respective cities for their great assistance in the preparation of 
these Sketches. In the case of only a few cities was the Editor 
deprived of such invaluable aid. 

He would take this opportunity to acknowledge his indebtedness 
for valuable service thus rendered, not only in furnishing material and 
information that could be supplied through no other source, but also 
in the careful revision of proof sheets to guard against any possible 
inaccuracy of statement and to include the very latest facts before 
going to press. 



Great Cities of the United States ; their Origin 
and Wonderful Growth. 




WASHINGTON, D. C 

ASHINGTON is the Capital of the United States; it is in the Fed- 
eral District of Columbia, situated on the left bank of the Potomac 
River, i6o miles from its mouth, between Anacostia River and Rock 
Creek, which separates it from Georgetown. It is 37 miles from Baltimore, 
136 from Philadelphia, 120 from Richmond, 225 from New York, 432 from 
Boston, 700 from Chicago, 856 from St. Louis, 1,033 f^'o^n New Orleans, and 
2,000 from San Francisco. The Potomac at Washington is one mile wide, 
and deep enough for the largest vessels. 

When, in October, 1800, the transfer of the Government of the United 
States was made to its present seat, the most visionary dreamer could hardly 
h?vp foreseen the magnificence and beauty of the city of Washington as it 
is to-day. 

The grandeur and greatness of the model government of the world is fit- 
tingly represented by the stately city, which is the home of the central gov- 
ernment of the most powerful republic the world has ever known, and its 
growing splendor (the evidence of the prosperity of the people) is but an ex- 
emplification of the saying of the great President Lincoln, that " a Govern- 
ment of the people and by the people shall not perish from the face of the 
earth." 

Li points of historic interest there is not a city in the world possessing 
the attractions to the American citizen that the Capital of the nation affords. 
In accordance with the act of Congress (March 3, 1791) the city was laid out, 



36 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITEl^ STATES. 

under the direction of President Washington, on a plateau 40 feet above the 
river, with several elevations, with over 250 miles of streets and avenues. 
The streets are from 80 to 12O feet wide, and the avenues 130 to 160 feet — 
the latter are named after various States. General Washington called it the 
Federal City, and it was not until after his death that it received his name. 
The streets from north to south are numbered, and those from east to west 
are lettered. Twenty-one avenues cross these in various directions; the new 
Executive Avenue winds from the White House around the city to the Capi- 
tol. The original plan of the city was so extensive and the increase of popu- 
lation so small, that Washington was often called " the city of magnificent 
distances." 

In 1839 ^^^ English traveler said: " The town looks like a large straggling 
village reared in a drained swamp." In 1851 the work of laying out and 
adorning the reservations and parks was commenced under the skillful guid- 
ance of A. J. Downing, but his death, the next year, and the neglect of Con- 
gress, arrested it for twenty years. In 1871 a government for the District 
was established by Congress, with a governor and legislature and a board of 
public works, to which was given control of the streets, avenues, and sewers 
of Washington and Georgetown, with authority to improve them under a 
general plan. A system of sewerage and of pavements was organized, which 
resulted in regrading most of the highways, paving 160 miles of streets with 
stone, wood, or concrete, planting about 30,000 shade trees, and improving 
the public squares with fences and trees. In three years the city was trans- 
formed. From that time to the present a very large number of public build- 
ings and private residences have been erected. The city covers about 6,000 
acres, of which the Government reservations comprise 500, and the streets 
2,500, leaving 3,000 for the lots on which private residences are built. As open 
places are in all parts of the city, fresh air is abundant, and healthfulness is 
greatly promoted. The undulating surface of the city produces a constant 
variety of scenery without obstructing the travel. Its environs present a 
beautiful and picturesque landscape, which is seen to the best advantage from 
the portico or dome of the Capitol, and drew from Humboldt the declaration, 
" In all my travels I have not seen a more charming panorama." 

THE CAPITOL BUILDING. 

Travelers who have visited all the capitols of the world pronounce this to 
be the finest civic building extant, and certainly every American may well be 



38 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 



proud of it. It stands upon Capitol Hill, fronting both east and west. It is 
751 feet long from north to south, 350 feet in width, covers an area of three 
and one-half acres of ground, and has cost upward of $15,000,000. The cen- 
tral portion is of sandstone, painted white ; this was partially destroyed in 
1 8 14 by the British. The extensions are of Massachusetts marble, with 
monolith columns of Maryland marble. The dome is of iron, and weighs 40 
tons. It is surmounted by a statue of " Freedom," from designs made by 
Thomas Crawford under a special commission from Congress. The corner- 
stone of the original Capitol, now the central part of the structure, was laid 
in 1793, by George Washington, with Masonic ceremonials. The corner-stone 
of the extensions was laid in 185 1, Daniel Webster delivering the oration. 




IHE SF.NAIK CH\Mi;i'.K 



The Capitol is always open to visitors except on legal holidays. The admis- 
sion is free, and parties endeavoring to collect an entrance fee to this or any 
other public building in Washington are impostors, and ought to be handed 
over to the police without ceremony. 

Here the objects of interest are so numerous that space can be given only 
to a brief mention of each of them. Upon a platform erected in the east cen- 
tral portico, the oath of office is administered to the President in the presence 
of the public, and here lie delivers his inaugural address. Fronting the por- 
tico is Greenough's statue of Washington. On each side the steps leading up 
to the portico are emblematical groups in marble; the one on the south side 
is Persico's " Discovery," the one on the north Greenough's "Civilization." 
The first represents Columbus holding a globe aloft, while an Indian maiden 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 



39 



crouches by his side. In the other the pioneer husband and father rescues 
the wife and child from impending death at the hands of the bloodthirsty In- 
dian. Within the portico are statues of " War " and " Peace " in niches. The 
door opening into the rotunda is the Rogers bronze door, so widely famous. 
It is well worth the closest study. It was cast in Munich, in 1861, from de- 
signs by Randolph Rogers, and cost altogether about $30,000. It is nine feet 
wide and seventeen feet high, and here, in a great bronze picture, is told the 
story of the life of Christopher Columbus. 

Having studied this magnificent work of art, the visitor enters the rotunda, 
a vast circular room, 95^ feet in diameter, 300 feet in circumference, and 180 
feet in height to the 
base of the canopy 
which surmounts it. 
The lower part of the 
w^all of the rotunda 
is occupied by eight 
historical pictures. 
Four of these pict- 
ures, viz. : " Declara- 
tion of Independ- 
ence," " The Surren- 
der of General Bur- 
goyne," "The Sur- 
render of Lord Corn- 
wallis," and "The 

Resignation of General Washington," were painted by John Trumbull, son of 
Governor Trumbull, of Connecticut, and for a time an ofificer of General 
Washington's staff. The chief value these paintings have lies in the fact that 
every face in them is a portrait. These four pictures cost the Government 
$32,000. Beside these are " De Soto Discovering the Mississippi," by Wm. 
H. Powell, for which the Government paid $15,000; "The Landing of Co- 
lumbus," by Vanderlyn, $12,000; "The Baptism of Pocahontas," by Chap- 
man, $10,000; and "The Embarkation of the Pilgrims," by Weir, $10,000. 
There are four doors opening into the rotunda, and over each is an alto 
relievo, viz.: over the north door, " Penn's Treaty with the Indians in 1682," 
by Gevelot ; over the south door, " The Conflict between Daniel Boone 
and the Indians in 1775," by Causici ; over the east door, "The Landing 




TREASURY DEPARTMENT. 



40 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 



of the Pilgrims on Plymouth Rock," also by Causici ; and over the west 
door is the " Preservation of Captain Smith, by Pocahontas," by Capellano. 
Above the architrave is a fresco in chiaro-oscura of sketches from American 
histor\-. The work was begun by Brumidi, and at his death was taken up 
by one of the masters of his school. It will, perhaps, be completed by the 
end of the present year. In the canopy above is Brumidi's allegorical paint- 
ing, representing " Washington Seated in Majesty." By climbing 365 steps 
the visitor may ascend to the top of the dome, whence a magnificent view of 
the city of Washington and the surrounding country may be had. 

The old hall of the House of Representatives is reached by passing through 
the south door of the rotunda. The finest piece of sculptured work in Wash- 
ington is the mar- 
ble clock in this 
hall. It is by 
Franzoni, and 
represents the 
" Genius of His- 
tory Making up 
H e r Records." 
This hall is now 
known as " Stat- 
uar}' Hall," and 
is reserved for the 
reception of sta- 
tues — each State 
being permitted to send statues of two of her chosen sons. Of these there 
are already here Ethan Allen, of Vermont ; John Winthrop and Samuel Adams, 
of Massachusetts; George Clinton and Robert R. Livingston, of New York; 
Edward D. Baker, of Oregon: William King, of Maine; Nathaniel Greene 
and 3-Joger Williams, of Rhode Island: Jonathan Trumbull and Roger Sher- 
man, of Connecticut: and Robert F. Stockton and Philip Kearny, of New 
Jersey. Besides these, there are a plaster cast of Houdan's Washington; 
Vinnie Ream's Lincoln: a bust of Kosciusko: Ames' bust of Lincoln; statues 
of Alexander Hamilton, Robert Fulton, and Thomas Jefferson: bust of Thos. 
Crawford, the designer of the statue of " Freedom " and the Senate bronze 
doors; a mosaic portrait of Lincoln, made by an Italian who never saw him; 
portraits of Joshua Giddings, Gunning Bedford, Henry Clay, Charles Carroll 




EAST ROOM OF IIIE WHITE HOfSE. 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 



41 



of Carrollton, General Washington, Benjamin West, and Thomas Jefferson. 
A large safe standing in this hall is filled with papers of historical value, placed 
there in 1876; the safe is not to be opened till 1976. 

Proceeding still further south, through a corridor of handsome proportions, 
the new hall of the House of Representatives is reached. This is 139 feet 
long, 93 feet wide, and 36 feet high. Galleries which will accommodate over 
1,000 people range about the sides of the chamber, and are always open to 
the public when the House is in session. There are reserved spaces for fami- 
lies of the Representatives, newspaper correspondents, and the diplomatic 
corps. The ceiling is a vast skylight, the opaque glass being set in panels in 
great iron frames, 
each panel bearing 
the arms of a State. 
On one side of the 
Speaker's chair is a 
portrait of Wash- 
ington, by Vander- 
lyn ; on the other 
a portrait of Lafay- 
ette, by Ary Sche- 
fer, both full length ; 
there are also paint- 
ings by Bierstadt. 
" The Landing of 
Henry Hudson " 

and " Discovery of California," and some frescoes by Brumidi, also find space 
here. The Capitol is floored with English Minton tiles. The corridors are lined 
with rooms for the use of the various committees of Congress, elaborately fres- 
coed and furnished. The staircases on the House side leading to the galleries 
are of Tennessee marble. Over the western staircase is Deutze's great pict- 
ure, " Westward the Course of Empire Takes it Way ; " over the eastern is 
Carpenter's picture, " The Proclamation of Emancipation." The library of 
the House is located on the second floor. The ground floor is used for com- 
mittee-rooms, the House post-ofUce, the House restaurant, folding-rooms, etc., 
etc. Still further down are the engines and furnaces which supply heat and 
ventilation to the south end of the building. Underneath the rotunda is the 
crypt, now nearly all taken up with temporary rooms in which are stored the 




THE INTERIOR DEPARTMENT. 



42 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 



surplus books belonging to the Congressional Library proper, for which ac- 
commodations are lacking in the rooms assigned to the library above. 

Retracing his steps from the House wing, the visitor on entering the ro- 
tunda will gain admission to the Congressional Library through swinging 
doors on the west. Here he finds himself in the midst of a library comprising 
upwards of 590,000 volumes. They are stored in three beautiful halls, the 
main one being 91 feet long, 34 feet wide, and 38 feet high; the two side halls 
are each 95 feet long and 30 feet wide. The general public is admitted to 
the library between the hours of nine and four every day except Sunday; and 
persons are at liberty to call for any desired book for purposes of reference, 

but are not allowed 



to take them away. 
Tables and chairs are 
furnished for the 
convenience of read- 
ers. Members of 
H Congress and certain 
officials are allowed 
to take books away^ 
with the understand- 
ing that the}' must 
be returned within a 
certain time. 

Leaving the li- 
brary, the visitor 
passes through the north door to the Supreme Court Room. This was for- 
merl)- the Senate Chamber. Admission can only be had when the court is 
in session. It was in this room that the Electoral Commission sat in Febru- 
ary, 1877. 

Thence through a broad corridor the visitor passes to the Senate Cham- 
ber, a room of similar arrangement to the Hall of the House of Representa- 
tives. It is not so large, however, being but 113;^ feet long by 80:^ wide, and 
it is much better furnished than the Hall of the House. Back of the Vice- 
President's chair, and separated from the Senate by a spacious lobby, is the 
famous Marble Room, where Senators may receive callers during sessions of 
the bod)'. This is a well-proportioned and beautiful room, the ceiling sup- 
ported by lofty Corinthian columns of Italian marble, and the walls lined with 




THE BUREAU OF AGRICrLTURE. 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 



43 



costly mirrors. Adjoining it on the north is the President's room ; it is so 
called because it is used by the President whenever he has occasion to \-isit 
the Capitol to confer with members of Congress in person. During the last 
hours of a session the President invariably occupies this room with the mem- 
bers of his Cabinet to sign bills as they are passed by the two Houses, as in 
case he does not sign before the session closes these enactments fail of be- 
coming laws. At the opposite end of the lobby is the Vice-President's room. 
Here Henry Wilson died. East of this room is the vast apartment known as 
the Ladies' Reception-room, where ladies may come to call on Senators on 
business. Still further south is the post-office of the. Senate, from which en- 
trance is gained to 
the ofifice of the Ser- 
geant-at-Arms. On 
the north side of the 
Senate Chamber are 
the oflfices of the Sec- 
retary of the Senate. 
Passing out upon 
the portico over the 
eastern entrance to 
the Senate, the cele- 
brated Crawford 
Bronze Door will be 
found worthy of at- 
tention. It illus- 
trates Revolutionary history, and cost in the neighborhood of $60,000. It 
was cast at Chicopee, Mass. Over the centre of the portico are a number of 
figures illustrating the " Progress of American Civilization and the Decadence 
of the Indian Race." Returning to the interior, the visitor will find over the 
staircase on the west side of the Senate Chamber, Walker's oil painting of 
" The Battle of Chapultepec," in many respects one of the most remarkable 
works of art in Washington; over the east staircase hangs Powell's painting 
of " Perry's Victory at Put-in-Bay, Lake Erie." The west staircase on the 
Senate side is of white marble ; on the east side it is of Tennessee marble. 
The ground floor is occupied by committee-rooms, bath-rooms, the Senate 
restaurant, etc. In the basement is located the heating and ventilating ap- 
paratus — well worth a visit. 




THE CORCORAN GALLERY OF ART. 



44 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; J 

The central building, situated on the summit of a gentle elevation, was 
designed chiefly by B. H. Latrobe, and commenced in 1793. The extension, 
with the dome, was designed by Thomas U. Walter. The grounds consist of | 
35 acres. It was burned by the British troops in 18 14, completed in 1827, i 
and extended by the addition of two spacious wings in 1851-59. I 

The new Hall of Representatives was occupied in 1857, and the Senate 
Chamber in 1859. During the war of the Rebellion the vv'ork was carried on; • 
the great dome rose from day to day while the city was an intrenched camp, , 
and at the close of 1863 the statue of " Freedom " was lifted to its place. I 

There are many other objects of interest in the Capitol building to which \ 
a lack of space prevents reference. Regularly authorized guides may be | 
found in the building, who are allowed to charge visitors a moderate fee for \ 
their services. : 

THE BOTANICAL GARDENS. ' 

The visitor may pass out of the western entrance and in a very few min- 
utes' walk reach the Botanical Gardens, with their eleven conservatories, the I 
largest being 300 feet long. To naturalists and lovers of rare plants and 
trees, there is much here of highest interest. | 

On the east of the President's house is the massive Treasury building, of j 
freestone and granite, 468 feet by 264, with Ionic porticoes on all four sides, | 
the monolithic columns on the south front being 31^ feet high and 4^ feet in I 
diameter; and on the west, the magnificent building for the State, War, and i 
Navy Departments, of granite, in the Roman-Doric style, Avith four facades, ! 
of which those on the north and south, and on the east and west respectively, j 

correspond. ! 

I 

THE TREASURY DEPARTMENT. ' 

- I 

The doors of the Treasury Department are open at nine o'clock in the ' 

morning, and close to the general public at two in the afternoon. The White i 

House is not open to visitors till ten A.M., and by the time the objects of in- 1 

terest in the Treasur}- Department have been seen, an entrance can be had ' 

to the President's house, the grounds of which adjoin those of the Treasury. \ 

The Department building covers the space occupied by two blocks. It is I 

300 feet wide at the north and south fronts, and 582 feet long. The four 1 
fronts are elaborately finished in the colonnade style, with porticoes on the 
north, south, and west fronts. The east front, the first one built, is of Vir- 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 



45 



ginia freestone ; the others are of the Dix Island granite. The structure cost 
nearly $7,000,000. It was many years in building, having been added to from 
time to time, as the increase of business required ; and yet it is not large 
enough to accommodate all the bureaus belonging to the Treasury. The 
cash-room is the most beautiful in the building, if not in all Washington. 
The walls and ceilings are entirely of foreign marbles. A permit from the 
Treasurer of the United States can readily be secured, by means of which the 
great vaults can be seen, the visitors being under charge of a Government 
ofificial. The offices of the Secretary of the Treasury are well worth examin- 
ing. They are richly and tastefully furnished, and the rooms, facing south, 
are of noble and 
beautiful propor- 
tions. 

THE 
WHITE HOUSE. 

The Executive 
Mansion, standing 
on elevated grounds 
between the Treas- 
ury on the east and 
the War, State, and 
Navy Department 
buildings on the 
west, is two stories 
high and 170 feet long. It is modeled after the palace of the Duke of 
Leinster, the architect, James Hoban, being from Ireland. It is of sand- 
. stone, painted white. It fronts north on Pennsylvania Avenue, across which 
is Lafayette Park. From the north front projects a huge portico, under 
which the carriages of visitors are driven. The south front looks upon a 
lovely park stretching down to the Washington Monument. The visitor en- 
ters at the north door, and finds himself at once in a magnificent vestibule, 40 
by 50 feet in size. A sash screen, filled with colored and ornamented glass, 
separates the vestibule from the corridor running in front of the Blue, Red, 
and Green parlors and the State dining-room. Ushers are in attendance to 
show to visitors those portions of the house open to the public. The East 
Room is 80 feet long by 40 in width, and is 24 feet high. The ceilings are 




THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 



46 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 



paneled and richly frescoed, while the chandeliers, mirrors, furniture, and 
carpets are of the most magnificent description. This room is used on all 
occasions of ceremony, grand receptions, etc. The Green Room adjoins on 
the west, and is so called because it is entirely furnished and adorned in green. 
The Blue Room comes next, furnished in blue; in turn the Red Room is en- 
tered, still proceeding west. This last is used more than any other, as the 
sitting-room for the President's family. The State dining-room is in the 
southwest corner of the house. It is 40 by 30 feet, and is very richly fur- 
nished. The family dining-room is also on the first floor, in the northwestern 
part of the house. The east half of the floor above is used for the transac- 
tion of public busi- | 
ness. Here the clerks 
and secretaries are 
found, and here is 
the Cabinet Room, 1 
where Cabinet ses- j 
sions are held, and | 
where the President I 
usually receives visi- J 
tors on ordinary rou- 
tine business. The 
kitchens, storerooms, 
servants' quarters, 
etc., are in the base- 
ment. The conser- 
vatory is attached to the west end of the building. It is beautiful and com- 
pletely appointed, and cost over $40,000. The Executive stables are at some 
distance southwest of the mansion. They cost over $30,000. The White. 
House was first occupied by John Adams, in 1800, the corner-stone ha\-ing 
been laid in 1792. It was burned by the British in 18 14. The cost of the 
present structure was something over $300,000. Portraits of the various 
Presidents are hung throughout the building. 

THE INTERIOR DEPARTMENT. 

Tlie Department of the Interior has a grand Doric building, commonly 
known as the Patent Office. A visitor can take one of the cars on the Met- 
ropolitan Street Railwa>- ami in five minutes reach the Interior Department 




NATIONAL MLhLLM ULILDING. 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 



47 



building, within which are located the Patent Office, the General Land Office, 
the Geological, the Indian Office, the Census Office, the Educational Bureau, 
etc. For the purpose of saving time, however, he may wisely stop at Tenth 
Street, whereon is located within half a square of " F " Street the old Ford's 
Theatre in which President Lincoln was assassinated, and the house directly 
opposite, where the great martyr died. The old theatre is now used as the 
Army Medical Museum, having been bought by the Government after the 
assassination. 

The Interior Department building covers two squares of ground, be- 
tween Seventh and 
Ninth and " F" and 
" G " Streets. Its 
dimensions are 410 
by 275 feet. It is 
of the Doric style of 
architecture. The 
centre, the first part 
built, is of freestone, 
the rest of marble 
and granite, and its 
cost was nearly $3,- 
000,000. There are 

thousands of patent the war, state, and NAW UEl'AKTMENTb. 

models and, others objects of interest in this building. 

THE WAR, STATE, AND NAVY DEPARTMENTS. 

A short walk brings the visitor to the building occupied by the War, 
State, and Navy Departments, just west of the White House. This is one of 
the most beautiful structures in Washington. It is in the Italian renaissance 
style, and is built of Maine and Virginia granite. The architect was A. B. 
Mullett. It is 342 feet in width, and runs 567 feet from north to south. The 
interior finishing is in harmony with the exterior. Taking everything into 
consideration, it is probably finished more handsomely and expensively than 
any other public building in the country. The State Department has charge 
of the original Declaration of Independence. The War and Navy Depart- 
ments have each museums of interesting relics, etc., and superb libraries. In 
all the departmental buildings are to be seen portraits of the various Secre- 




48 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 

taries, from the earliest days to the present. It will be some years before 
this building is entirely finished, for, although it is now occupied, the west 
wing yet remains to be built. 

THE DISTRICT COURT-HOUSE, 

where the District Courts hold their sessions, is located on the southern 
part of Judiciary Square, between Fourth and Fifth and "D" and "G" 
Streets. The new building for the accommodation of the Pension Bureau is 
now being constructed on the north side of this square. It w^as in the Dis- 
trict Court-House that Guiteau was tried and the famous Star Route trial 
was held. 

The Post-Office Department building stands opposite to the Interior De- 
partment building, on the square bounded by " E " and " F " and Seventh 
and Eighth Streets. It is of white marble, and is of the Corinthian style of 
architecture. The Dead-Letter Office is the chief object of interest in this 
building, to which access is readily had. 

The Department of Justice, or Attorney-General's ofifice, is situated at the 
corner of Sixteenth-and-a-half Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, north of the 
Trcasur}' Department. The building, of brick and brown-stone, was erected 
by the PVeedman's Bank for its own uses, and was subsequently purchased 
by the Government. There is nothing here to attract the tourist. 

THE BUREAU OF ENGRAVING AND PRINTING 

is located on an eminence but a short distance southwest of the Agricult- 
ural building. Here the printing of Government bonds, greenbacks, na- 
tional bank notes, internal revenue stamps, etc., etc., is done. No place in 
Washington is more attractive to visitors. The building is very handsome in 
itself, and with its wonderful machinery and hundreds of employes rates sec- 
ond to none in interest. 

The Washington Monument is but a short distance south of this building. 
It is undoubtedly the loftiest artificial structure in the world 

The 1880 Census Office, having finished its work, is in a few rooms over the 
Second National Bank, Seventh Street, opposite the Post-Office Department, 
he Smithsonian Institution is located just east of the Agricultural Bu- 
reau. It is of a red stone, and with its towers and gables of the twelfth cent- 
ury, Norman style of architecture, makes a very pleasing impression. An 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 



49 



immense volume would be required to catalogue the curiosities to be found 
here. Adjoining it on the east is the still more interesting National Museum 
building, which is also crowded with curios from all parts of the world. It 
was in this building, then incomplete, that the Garfield Inaugural Ball was 
held in iS8i 

THE GOVERNMENT PRINTING-OFFICE. 

This is said to be the largest and best equipped printing-ofifice in the 
world. It is situated at the corner of " H " and North Capitol Streets, and 
covers more than two-thirds of a square of ground. It is in a building 300 
feet by 175, has a r 
complete equipment, t 
a n d manufactures ' 
about 1,000,000 vol- 
umes annually. 

The Navy Yard 
covers about 27 
acres, and though 
not much used for 
the construction of 
vessels, is of great 
importance in manu- 
facturing and storing 
supplies. Besides 
the public buildings 
already erected, others in different parts of the city are rented for the De- 
partment of Justice, Pension Of^ce, Commissary Bureau, and other branches 
of service. 




THE BUREAU OF ENGRAVING AND PRINTING. 



THE ARMY MEDICAL MUSEUM 

contains 10,000 MS. volumes of hospital reports and a large assemblage of 
specimens representing the effects of wounds, diseases, and surgical opera- 
tions. The microscopic section is admirable ; and the models of barracks, 
hospitals, ambulances, and surgical instruments, are not equaled in any simi- 
lar collection. The medical library contains about 40,000 volumes. 

The great interests centering in the legislation for over 55,000,000 of peo- 
ple, bring to the city multitudes of people of every class and for various ob- 



50 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 



jects; and its pleasant winter climate makes it attractive to persons of wealth 
and leisure from all parts of the country, and to visitors from other lands. 
The fashionable season begins with the meeting of Congress in December. 
From Christmas to Lent, receptions, balls, and dinners abound; the levees of 
the President, members of the Cabinet, and Speaker of the House, are open 
to all comers; the President receives the calls of the public, and on Jan. ist 
his reception is attended by foreign ministers in official costume, ofificers of 
the Army and Navy in uniform, officers of the Government, members of Con- 
gress, and citizens generally. 

The Pension Office was located (1889) in the Shepherd Building, at the 

corner of Twelfth 
Street and Pennsyl- 
vania Avenue. 

In the long sum- 
mer evenings it is 
the almost universal 
custom in Washing- 
ton to drive out after 
dinner to the Sol- 
diers' Home, where 
there are twenty 
miles of the finest 
roadways in the 
world in the noble 
public park belong- 
ing to this institution, and is well deserving a visit. In the winter the bright, 
bracing afternoons offer the most favorable opportunities for this purpose. 

The Soldiers' Home, a national institution for invalid soldiers, was estab- 
lished in 1 85 1. It has since been greatly enlarged, and is maintained with a 
fund accumulated by retaining 12^ cents a month from the pay of each priv- 
ate soldier. The buildings are handsome, and the grounds adorned with 
meadows, groves, and lakes. The Naval Hospital supplies a similar home for 
sick and disabled seamen of the Navy. The buildings of the Home are for 
the most part of Ohio or other white sandstone, and while they are pictures- 
que, afford most comfortable homes for the old veterans. President Lincoln 
occupied one of these cottages for his summer residence. 




ARUNOTOX, HOME OF RClHEKT E. LEE. 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 



51 



THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 

occupies a building of brick and brown-stone, in the renaissance style, 170 
feet by 61, with green-houses, graperies, and experimental grounds, around 
it, covering 10 acres. The business of the Department is the distribution 
over the country of seeds, plants, and general agricultural information. 

THE UNITED STATES NAVAL OBSERVATORY. 

The United States Naval Observatory is on the Potomac, between Wash- 
ington and Georgetown. The grounds attached to it are 19 acres in extent. 
From the flagstaff 
on the dome of the 
principal building a 
signal-ball is dropped 
daily at noon, trans- 
m i 1 1 i n g by tele- 
graphic connections 
the mean time to all 
parts of the United 
States. Another 
edifice has been spe- 
cially adapted to the 
reception and em- 
ployment of the 
great equatorial telescope made by Alvan Clark, and mounted in 1873. It 
has an object-glass of 26 inches, and cost nearly $50,000. 

MOUNT VERNON. 

The Tomb of George W'ashington is at Mount Vernon, W^ashington's old 
home, seventeen miles down the beautiful Potomac. Every day except Sun- 
day a steamer runs to Mount Vernon for the accommodation of tourists, leav- 
ing the city at nine A.M. and returning at four P.M. 

The city has 120 churches. Some of the public halls are Lincoln, Odd 
Fellows', Willard's, Tallmadge, and the Masonic Temple ; and of the hotels, 
Willard's, the Arlington, Ebbitt House, Riggs House, National, and Metro- 
politan are widely known. Boarding-houses greatly abound. The number 
of Government officers and clerks is about 7,000. During the Rebellion 




THE SOLDIERS HOME. 



s- 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 



Washington was the centre of vast miHtary operations. The military works 
were serviceable for the safety of the city after the disasters of 1862, and 
when Early marched on the city. Throughout the war Washington was a 
vast depot for military supplies; long trains of army wagons were almost 
constantly passing through its streets; immense hospitals for the sick md 
wounded were erected, and many churches, public institutions, and the Capi- 
tol itself, were at times given up to this service. 

WILLARD'S HOTEL. 

While there are a great many noble buildings and historic spots in Wash- 
ington which have the highest interest to the visitor, Willard's Hotel stands 

second to none of 
t h e m , historically 
considered. 

It was in the very 
early days of the 
Republic, and very 
soon after the Na- 
tional Government 
had become fixed in 
its new quarters on 
the Potomac, that 
the first humble be- 
ginning of what is 
now a magnificent 
and luxurious struct- 
ure, was made on a spot directly adjoining the present site of the house. 
The enterprise of that early day located with wonderful accurac)' the 
point that \\ould be most con\-enient and most desirable for a hotel. Wil- 
lard's was known seventy-five years ago as the "City" Hotel, subsequently 
it was called " Williamson's," and later on it took the name of " Fuller's," 
which it kept until a few )-ears before the Civil War, when, passing into the 
hands of the Willards, it was given its present name. 

From a time whereof the memory of even the oldest inhabitant of the 
city runneth not to the contrary, our Presidents have gone from the suites of 
rooms on the secontl floor at the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and P'our- 
teenth Street, escorted with all the pomp and pageantry which have grown 




MOUNT VERNON'. 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 53 

up around the ceremony, to the east front of the noble Capitol building, 
there to assume the oath of their high office in the presence of waiting thou- 
sands, and to deliver their inaugural addresses which marked out the policy 
to be pursued by the new administration. 

Of the vast armies which ebbed and flowed through Washington during 
the late war, there are thousands of old soldiers who will recall with delight 
the hours spent within the hospitable doors of Willard's. The old statesmen 
who served their country in the halls of Congress or the Cabinets of the 
Presidents will recall, at the sound of the name, the grave and patriotic con- 
sultations held within the walls of the famous old house — consultations which 
had for their object - - -v - — & _^^- - ^_ — ^ 

the happiness of mil- ^' -^^ -^^r== ^^ 

lions of people, the 
welfare of the great 
Republic. 

THE CORCORAN 
GALLERY OF 
ART. 

This building, 
with a large num- 
ber of paintings and 
an endowment fund 
of $900,000, was given to the United States by Mr. W. W. Corcoran, a retired 
banker of great wealth, well known for his generous endowments, who re- 
sided in Washington until his death in 1888. Handsome additions of works 
of art are made to the gallery every year, and it is well worth a visit. 

LAFAYETTE SQUARE. 

Leaving the art gallery and passing east, this lovely park is reached by a 
walk of half a square. In the centre is Clark Mills' celebrated equestrian 
statue of General Jackson. The public parks are kept in admirable order by 
appropriations made by Congress, and expended under the direction of an 
officer of the Army Engineers detailed to the charge of public buildings and 
grounds. 

38 




WIl.I.ARDS HOTEL. 



54 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 



STATUES AND MONUMENTS. 

There are a great many statues of distinguished soldiers and statesmen 
scattered over the city, located in the various parks and squares. Of these 
may be enumerated the Thomas equestrian statue, in Thomas circle, at the 

junction of Fourteenth 
Street and Vermont Ave- 
nue; Scott's equestrian 
statue in Scott circle, at the 
junction of Sixteenth Street 
and Massachusetts Avenue ; 
McPherson's equestrian 
statue in McPherson 
Square, Fifteenth and ' K " 
Streets; Farragut's statue 
in Farragut Square, Seven- 
teenth and "K" Streets; 
Jackson's equestrian statue, 
fronting the White House; 
Rawlins' equestrian statue, 
New York Avenue, be- 
tween Eighteenth and 
Nineteenth Streets; eques- 
trian statue of Washing- 
ton in Georgetown circle, 
Pennsylvania Avenue and 
Twenty-third Street ; these 
^ are all in the northwestern 
uart of the city; east of the 
Capitol, in Stanton Square, 
at the intersection of 
.tauks am, .mu.mmi.m>. Maryland and Massachu- 

setts Avenues, is the equestrian statue of General Nathaniel Greene, of 
Revolutionary fame; and in Lincoln Square, due east of the Capitol a half a 
mile or more, is the bronze group, called " Emancipation," representing Pres- 
ident Lincoln striking the manacles off the slave. The National monu- 
ment to Washington was commenced in 1848, and after long delay is now 




THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 55 

completed as a lofty and plain obelisk, 70 feet square at the base and 600 
feet high. 

The population in 1880 was 147,293, and in 1889 ^^^s estimated to be 185,- 
000. The yearly city expenditures average $3,500,000, the cost per capita 
being $17.38. The natural situation of the city is pleasant and salubrious. 
It is one of the handsomest and most commodious cities in the world. Its 
great prosperity is due to the presence of the National Government. It has 
considerable retail trade, but the manufacturing or other business is unim- 
portant. 

VARIOUS INSTITUTIONS. 

The Columbia Institute for the Deaf and Dumb, at Kendall Green, ac- 
commodates 100 pupils in beautiful buildings, surrounded with 100 acres; the 
Hospital for the Insane has a commodious building in the midst of 400 acres, 
and shelters 600 patients; Providence Hospital has 200 inmates; the Louise 
Home is a beautiful building, on the finest avenue of the city, erected and 
endowed by Mr. Corcoran as a memorial of his daughter and a home for gen- 
tlewomen who have become poor. The Columbia Woman's Hospital, the 
Washington Orphan Asylum, Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphans' Home, St. 
Joseph's and St. Vincent's Orphan Asylums, St. John's Hospital for Children, 
the Freedmen's Hospital, and the Home for the Aged, under the care of 
" The Little Sisters of the Poor," are among the charitable institutions with 
which the city abounds. Among its institutions of learning are Columbian 
University, Gonzaga College, under Jesuit instruction, and Howard Univer- 
sity, for colored youth, under Congregational and Presbyterian supervision. 



s 



NEW YORK CITY. 

EW YORK, one of the greatest cities of modern times, is the most 
important city and seaport in the United States, and the third in 
the civiHzed world. If to the population of New York in 1889 
we add that of Brooklyn, Jersey City, and other neighboring communities, 
which are practically the suburbs of New York, we find within a radius of 
twenty-five miles from the City Hall a compact population of nearly 3,000,- 
000, which is the real population of the great city. Its w'onderful increase 
can be attributed in great part to its admirable situation. The water in the 
outer and inner bay and in the river is so deep that great ships lie close to 
the piers. The navigation of the harbor is seldom impeded by ice, even 
when the Chesapeake and others are frozen up. The canal system connects 
it not only with Lake Ontario and Lake Erie, but also with the Ohio River, 
which gives it an outlet to the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico. Soon 
after the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825, New York, which was at that 
time smaller than Philadelphia, began to make tremendous strides, and soon 
was far in advance of all other American cities. Its facilities for cheap 
communication with the Great West give it great advantage over Boston 
and other Eastern coast cities, and for this reason they can never rival it. 
Philadelphia and Baltimore are nearer the West, but are at a considerable 
distance from the ocean, and when their vessels arrive at the open sea they 
are left behind in the race to Europe, as they have a much further dis- 
tance to go than vessels leaving New York, which is a great loss and disad- 
vantage for steamers, not only in time and expense, but in earning capacity, 
as every extra ton of coal carried to complete the voyage means one ton of 
freight less, as it reduces the carrying capacity for freight to just that ex- 
tent. It is true the coal consumed in the voyage can be purchased cheaper 
in Baltimore and Philadelphia. New York's imports are annually about 
$320,000,000; domestic exports about $300,000,000; foreign exports about 
$13,000,000. The exports would probably be far in excess of the imports 
were it not for the fact that a great many goods from the West and 
South are exported by way of New Orleans, while most of the valuable arti- 
cles brought from abroad that are consumed in the same States come in by 
way of New York. 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 57 

New York is situated on the east side of the mouth of the Hudson River, 
at its junction with the East River, which opens into Long Island Sound, in 
the State of New York, 18 miles from the k=^^ 

ocean, and separated from the mainland 
by a narrow strait, called the Harlem 
River, on the east, and on the west by 
Spuyten Duyvil Creek. This forms the 
island of Manhattan. The city also in- 
cludes several smaller islands, contain- 
ing the fortifications in the harbor and 
the public institutions in the East River, 
and since 1874 a considerable portion of 
the mainland north of Manhattan Island. 
Its boundaries (1889) are Yonkers on the 
north, the Bronx River and the East 
River on the east, the bay on the south, 
and the North or Hudson River on the 
west. The city extends 16 miles north 
from the Battery, its middle part is 4^^ 
miles wide, and its total area 41}^ square 
miles. 

HISTORICAL EPITOME. 

September 9, 1609, Henry Hudson, an 
Englishman in the employ of the Dutch 
East India Company, sailed his little ves- 
sel into New York Bay, and commenced 
his voyage up the river to which his name 
is attached, which he explored to a point 
above Hudson. All the land which he 
discovered was claimed by the Dutch, and ^^0 
named New Netherland, and in 161 1 the 
States-General offered special privileges uaktholdi statue— "liherty enlightening 
to any company opening and encouraging ''"^ world." 

trade with the natives of their newly-acquired possessions. This encourage- 
ment procured not only trading, but colonization. In 161 3 a fort was built 
on Manhattan Island, but the settlement about it was broken up by the Eng- 




58 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 



lish. In the following year another Dutch colony established itself on the 
same spot, and continued in possession. In 162 1 the prospects of a lucrative 
commerce with America had induced certain merchants in Holland to com- 
bine in the organization of the Dutch West India Company, for colonization 
purposes, and two years later this company took out eighteen families, who 
settled at Fort Orange (Albany), and thirty families, who made a settlement 
on Manhattan Island, which they bought for $24, and founded New Amster- 
dam, now New York. This was accomplished by Peter Minnits, the Director- 
General, who, representing the Dutch West India Company, came here to 
take charge of their colonies. He was an able Governor. 




IM IN M.W \<'Klv I.A\ 



The English opposition to the Dutch colonization schemes was persistent 
from the beginning, and fruitful of much conflict. The English claimed the 
territory north of V^irginia on the ground of the anterior discoveries by Cabot ; 
and in 1664 a charter was granted by Charles II. to the Duke of York, which 
covered all the lands lying between the Hudson and the Delaware, and in- 
cluded New Netherland, as well as lands already held by prior grant, by 
Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. In the summer of the year 
in which this charter was given. Colonel Nicolls was sent from England with 
sufficient force, and on arriving at New Amsterdam demanded the surrender 
of the Dutch possessions. The demand was acceded to by Governor Stuyve- 
sant, who was powerless to prevent its enforcement, and the country in ques- 
tion passed into the hands of the English without a struggle. The name New 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 59 

York was now given both to the settlement on Manhattan Island and to the 
entire province, and that of Albany to Fort Orange. A subsequent recap- 
ture by the Dutch was followed by a speedy restoration to the English ; and 
on the Duke of York ascending the throne of England under the title of 
James II., the province passed into the possession of the Crown. 

In 1696 the first Trinity Church was built. A slave market was estab- 
lished in 171 1. The Nezv York Gazette was established in 1725; this was the 
first newspaper published in the city. About 1730 a line of stages was estab- 
lished between New York and Boston ; they occupied two weeks in making 
the trip. In 1750 the first theatre in the city was opened. In 1755 the Stamp 
Act created great excitement ; the Colonial Congress assembled in the city, 
and the Stamp Act was publicly burned. In 1765 the Sons of Libert}- were 
organized. The statue of George III. was destroyed in 1770, and the duty 
on tea was resisted in the same year. In 1774 a ship laden with tea was re- 
turned to England after eighteen chests were destroyed. In 1776 the city 
was occupied by an American force, but the battles of Long Island and others 
in the immediate vicinity being disastrous to our arms, Washington and his 
army abandoned it, and the British took possession of the city and held it for 
seven years, from August 26, 1776, to November 23, 1783. The building of 
the present City Hall was commenced in 1803, and finished in 1812. Robert 
Fulton made his first steamboat voyage to Albany in 1807, and in 18 12 began 
running the ferries from New York to Brooklyn by steam. In the same year 
gas was introduced, but did not come into general use until 1825. 

The Erie Canal was begun in i8i7and finished in 1825. The effect of this 
great work was to enrich the State, while opening the way for the stream of 
commerce which has resulted in making the city of New York the metropolis 
of the W'estern Continent. 

In 1826 the Hudson & Mohawk Railroad was chartered — probably the 
first railroad charter granted in the country. This road was commenced in 
1830, and the New York & Erie in 1836. The gradual absorption of the vari- 
ous New York lines which form the Hudson River Railroad, and the consoli- 
dation of the New York Central and Hudson River Railroads into one pow- 
erful four-track trunk line connecting the metropolis with the West, were 
significant events in the development of the city and State. 

In 1832 an epidemic of cholera caused the death of nearly 4,000 persons, 
and in 1834 about i,ooo. The east side of the city below Wall Street was 
destroyed by fire in 1835, the entire loss being $18,000,000. In 1837 a finan- 




GRAND CENTRAL DEPOT SHOWING ELEVATED RAILROAD, N Y. 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 6i 

cial panic brought failures and general loss to the entire country. The Astor 
Place riots in 1849, ^"'^^ ^^^^ cholera epidemic of that year, which carried off 
5,071 persons, were important events. The first city railroad was built in 
1852, and on July 14, 1853, the Crystal Palace Industrial Exhibition was 
opened, the President of the United States officiating. A second financial 
panic occurred in 1857. From i860 to 1865 the city was engaged in patriotic 
and generous service in behalf of the Union, threatened by the secession of 
the Southern States. In the fall of 1873 occurred the great financial panic 
which began with the failure of Jay Cooke & Co. During several years at 
this period an investigation took place into the acts of the so-called " Tweed 
Ring," by which the city had been plundered of many millions of dollars. 
The arrest, flight, and punishment of most of the offenders, and the death of 
Tweed himself in prison, was a lesson that seems to have been forgotten by 
the aldermen that granted the Broadway Railroad franchise in 1884, which led 
to the indictment of all .but two. In 1883-4 there was great depression in 
business, which at one time almost amounted to a panic. The election in the 
fall of 1884, which placed Grover Cleveland in the Presidency, created great 
excitement in the city, and caused general depression in trade, which, after 
the inauguration, speedily revived. 

New York is connected with Brooklyn by the Brooklyn Bridge, also by 
numerous steam ferries; there are also many large steam ferry-boats running 
to Jersey City and other places. Manhattan Island is 13^^ miles long and 
one and three-fifths wide. There are eighty-five piers or wharves on the 
Hudson River, and seventy-five on the East River. At the piers on both 
sides of each river is accommodated the great sailing commerce of the cit}'. 
A ridge runs through the centre of the city like a backbone; it rises at Wash- 
ington Heights to 238 feet. Avenues 100 feet wide and 8 or 10 miles long, 
mostly in straight lines, are crossed at right angles by streets from 50 to 100 
feet wide, extending from river to river. There are five avenues designated 
respectively A, B, C, D, and E. The numbered cross-streets are designated 
east and west from Fifth Avenue. There are also 13 numbered avenues, 
nearly 200 numbered streets, and about 400 named streets, av^enues, etc. 

NOTABLE BUILDINGS. 

New York is built of brick, sandstone, granite, iron, and white marble. 
Among its finest edifices are the City Hall, Custom-House, County Court- 
House, Post-Office, Trinity Church, Grace Church, two universities, the Roman 



62 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 



Catholic Cathedral, Academy of Music, Metropolitan Opera House, Casino, 
Cooper Institute, numerous great hotels, and many fine public and private 
structures. Besides, there are thirty-five Roman Catholic schools and colleges 
and academies of the religious orders. The hospitals and institutions of char- 
ity are on a liberal scale; and besides legal outdoor relief, the poor are visited 
and cared for by a public society, with agents in every direction. Among the 
charities are asylums for insane, blind, deaf and dumb, magdalens, foundlings, 

etc. The Astor Free 
Library, founded by 
^= John Jacob Astor, has 
^ 150,000 carefully se- 
lected volumes; the 
Mercantile Library, 
150,000 volumes, with 
a large, reading-room ; 
Society Library, 64,- 
000; Apprentices' Li- 
brary, 50,000, Avith rich 
museums of antiquities ; 
the Cooper Institute, a 
present to the city by 
Peter Cooper, has a free 
^5^. reading-room, picture- 
gallery, art-schools, etc. 
Annual art exhibitions 
are given by the Na- 
tional Academ}' of De- 
sign, Dusseldorf, and 
International Galleries. 
Among the clubs are the Army and Navy, Knickerbocker, Lotos, Man- 
hattan, Century, Down-Town, Harmonic, Merchants', New York, Press, Rac- 
quet, St. Nicholas, Union League, Union, Arion and Liederkranz (singing), 
and University. 

The Metropolitan Museum of Art was founded in 1870 for the purpose of 
encouraging the study of the fine arts, and the application of the principles 
of art to manufactures and to ])ractical life, and for the purpose of furnishing 
popular instruction. The building was erected at a cost of $500,000, and 




liKoADWAV AM) TRINI'l Y CHURCH. 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 



63 



opened March 30, 1880, by the President of the United States. It is located 
in Central Park at Fifth Avenue and Eighty-second Street. It is 218 feet 
long and 95 broad, and contains numerous articles of great beauty and inter- 
est. It is open free of charge to the public on Wednesdays^ Thursdays, Fri- 
days, and Saturdays; 50 cents is charged for admission on Mondays and 
Tuesdays. The Museum of Natural History is located in Central Park at 
Eighty-first Street and Eighth Avenue; admission free. The city contains 
numerous art galleries, over 300 public schools, and about 400 churches. The 
Bartholdi statue is on Bedloe's Island, a short distance from the Battery, 
which is at the foot of Broadway. 

The Stock Exchange is a fine white marble building, located in Broad 




FIFTH AVEM'E HOTEL. 



Street, having an extension to Wall Street and running back to New Street. 
Seats in the Exchange are now worth $32,000. None but members are 
allowed on the floor. Ten thousand dollars is paid to the heirs of every de- 
ceased member from the Gratuity Fund established by the Exchange. 

Among the important buildings deserving notice is St. Patrick's (Roman 
Catholic) Cathedral, occupying the block on Fifth Avenue, between Fiftieth 
and Fifty-first Streets. The corner-stone was laid on August 15, 1858, and 
it was dedicated by Cardinal McCloskey, May 25, 1879. The architecture is 
of the thirteenth century style, the ground plan being in the form of a Latin 
cross. The dimensions are : Interior length, 306 feet ; breadth of nave and 
choir, 96 feet, with the chapels, 120 feet; length of transept, 140 feet; height, 



^^/ iTfi 




. GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 65 

108 feet. The Fifth Avenue front comprises a central gable 156 feet in height, 
with towers and spires, each 330 feet high. The building is of white marble, 
with a base-course of granite. The total cost was about $2,500,000. The 
building of the Young Men's Christian Association, Fourth Avenue and 
Twenty-third Street, was erected in 1869, and cost $500,000. It is French 
renaissance in style, five stories high, 175 feet front and 86 feet depth. 

Castle Garden is now used as a depot for emigrants, for which purpose it 
has been employed since 1855. It is situated in the Battery Park, at the ex- 
treme southern end of Manhattan Island, convenient for foreign steamers and 
shipping. The business of receiving, caring for, and shipping to their desti- 
nation the many thousands of immigrants is in charge of seven Commission- 
ers of Emigration. During a single year 372,880 persons arrived at this port, 
of whom 320,607 passed through Castle Garden. Their destinations were — 
Eastern States, 63,368; Western States, 112,119; Southern States, 6,497; 
New York State, 137,561 ; Canada, 1,627. 

The Croton Aqueduct brings a river of pure soft water from 40 miles dis- 
tance, which is received in reservoirs of a capacity of 1,500,000,000 gallons, 
and distributed with such a head as to supply public fountains of 60 and 80 
feet jet, and the upper stories of most buildings. 

Central Park is laid out in the finest style of landscape gardening, and is 
two and one-half miles long by three-fifths of a mile wide. It was begun in 
1858, and includes between 59th and iioth Streets and between Fifth and 
Eighth Avenues, and contains 840 acres, in which are two large lakes. It 
is inferior in some respects to older parks, especially when its trees are com- 
pared with old park forests. Its lawns are necessarily limited in space, yet 
in proportion to the space which it covers it has developed many beauties 
and much interest for the public. The plans for its laying out were sub- 
mitted and executed by Frederick Law Olmstead and Calvert Vaux. Four 
thousand men were engaged on the work in 1858. The ground was a region 
of hills and swampy hollows, containing a few old farms and mansions. 
Within five years the transformation was astonishing. The reservoirs within 
it occupy 142 acres. In addition to this water there are six artificial lakes, 
containing 42 acres; the lawns cover nearly no acres. It contains nearly 10 
miles of carriage roads, 28 miles of walks, and nearly 6 miles devoted to 
equestrians; there are in all 46 bridges. The visitors to the park often num- 
ber 100,000 a day. 

Riverside Park, which is now famous as General Grant's last resting-place. 



66 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 



is situated above Central Park, on the east bank of the Hudson River. It is j 

a long, narrow strip of land, and is visited by thousands from all parts of the '■ 
country. The tomb can be seen by travelers on the Hudson River boats, as 
the site commands a fine view of the river. About twenty other smaller pub- 
lic parks are to be found in the city. 

New York is the great centre of Am.erican finance and commerce. It | 
receives 66 per cent, of all imports, and sends out 50 per cent, of all exports. 

The New York & Harlem, 
the New York, New Ha- 
ven & Hartford, and the j 
New York Central & Hud- | 
son River Railroads ter- 
minate at the Grand Cen- > 
tral Depot at Forty-second 1 
Street, while many rail- 
roads terminate at Terscv I 

I 

City, the passengers being j 

carried across the Hudson j 
River on the companies' | 
large and commodious fer- j 
ry-boats. The Long Is- j 
land Railroad terminates ! 
at Hunter's Point, L. I., 
and connects with the city 1 
by ferry. The finest pas- 
senger steamboats in the j 

world pass up the Hudson, Long Island Sound, and down the Narrows,. 1 

through the Lower Bay. 

GOVERNMENT AND EDUCATION. ; 

The government of the city is vested in the " Mayor, Aldermen, and com- ; 

monaltyof the city of New York." The legislative power is vested in a board \ 

of twenty-four aldermen. The executive power is vested in the Mayor and ! 

heads of departments appointed by the Mayor, and confirmed by the Board < 

of. Aldermen, for a term of six years (except in special cases). The salary of ' 

the Mayor is $12,000, and that of each Alderman $4,000 per annum. The I 

Finance Department is under the direction of the Comptroller, who receives j 




THE CUSTOM HOUSE 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. ^1 

a salary of $io,ooo per annum. The City Chamberlain receives a salary of 
$30,000, out of which he pays all the expenses of his ofifice. 

The Health Department is under the direction of a Board of Health, 
which has charge of all sanitary matters except the cleaning of streets. The 
expense of the Fire Department, which is very efficient, is about $1,500,- 
000 annually. The Building Department supervises the erection of new 
buildings and additions to old structures within the city limits. 

The Police Department is governed by a Board of four Commissioners, 
who receive $6,000 a year each, excepting the President of the Board, who 
is selected by themselves from themselves, and receives $8,000. Patrolmen 
receive $1,000 a year; roundsmen, $1,200; sergeants, $1,500, and captains, 
$2,000. The city has a large number of public markets under the general 
direction of a superintendent. Besides the General Post-Office, there are 
19 sub-stations and over 1,000 lamp-post boxes, from which collections are 
made seven times daily (Sundays excepted). Each police court has connected 
with it a prison, viz. : The Tombs, or City Prison, in Centre Street ; Essex 
Market, in Essex Street ; Jefferson Market, Sixth Avenue and West Tenth 
Street; Yorkville, Fifty-seventh Street; Harlem, 125th Street. Ludlow 
Street Jail is used for prisoners from the Federal and State Courts. 

The evening schools supply instruction to about 20,000 children and 
others who are obliged to work during the day. The College of the City of 
New York was established in 1847, ^^'^^ until 1866 was known as the New 
York Free Academy. It is open only to pupils from the public schools who 
have been in attendance at least one year. The college confers the degrees 
of B.A., M.A., B.S., and M.S. The buildings are on Lexington Avenue and 
Twenty-third Street, and valued at $150,000; they contain a library, natural 
history cabinet, and scientific apparatus, the whole valued at $75,000. The 
annual cost of maintaining the college is about $150,000. The Normal Col- 
lege for Women is on Sixty-ninth Street, between Lexington and Fourth 
Avenues. The building is 300 feet long and 125 feet wide, fronting on Fourth 
Avenue; its cost was $350,000. There is also a model or training school for 
practice. Its object is to prepare teachers for the common schools. The 
cost of maintaining this institution is about $100,000 per annum. Other in- 
stitutions of learning are Columbia College, the University of the City of New 
York, and the medical, law, and theological schools and seminaries. Colum- 
bia College, originally King's College, was chartered in 1754. The Corpora- 
tion of Trinity Church erected the first college building on the church lands 



68 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 



between College Place and the Hudson River. About 1850 the old buildings 
were surrendered, and the college removed to its present site on Madison and 
Fourth Avenues, Forty-ninth and Fiftieth Streets. The departments are the 
Academic, the School of Mines, and the Law School. The University of 
the City of New York is comprised in the university building on Washington 
Square, and the Medical College building on East Twenty-sixth Street, oppo- 
site Bellevue Hospital. The university was chartered in 1830, and is non- 
denominational. Instruction in the departments of the arts and sciences is 
given free of charge. 

The regular medical schools or colleges are Bellevue Hospital Medical 




's^;;;;7:('miiii«i*m'M»_ 



'» til liiiti 






THE GRAND CENTRAL DEPOT. 

College, the College of Physicians and Surgeons, and the University Medical 
College, the second of these being the Medical Department of Columbia 
College. Bellevue Hospital Medical College is located within the hospital 
grounds, at the foot of East Twenty-sixth Street. It was founded in 1801, 
and is under the control of the Commissioners of Public Charities and Cor- 
rections. Applicants for admission must be eighteen years of age. The course 
of study is three years. The fees in all amount to $185. The college ranks 
high, and has about 500 students. 

The Protestant Episcopal Theological Seminary is situated in what is 
known as Chelsea Square, between Ninth and Tenth Avenues and Twentieth 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 



69 



and Twenty-first Streets. It was founded in 1819 and chartered in 1822. 
The course of study lasts three years. The Union Theological Seminary is 
on Univ^ersity Place, between Waverley and Clinton Places. It was founded 
in 1836. The seminary course occupies three years, and the library has 35,000 
volumes. 

In 1700 there were only 800 dwelling-houses on Manhattan Island, and 
about 5,000 inhabitants. In 1790 the population was 29,906, and the city ex- 
tended as far north as the lower end of the City Hall Park. In 1805 the popu- 
lation was 79,770; in 1840,312,700; in 1880, 1,206,577, and in 1889, 1,500,000. 




SHIP-BUILDING. 




NEW YOEK AND BROOKLYN BRIDGE. 



CITY OF BROOKLYN. 




ROOKLYN is situated at the west end of Long Island, and is the 
capital of Kings County, N. Y. There are thirteen lines of steam 
ferries plying between Brooklyn and New York, and the annex 
boats connect Jersey City with Fulton Street, Brooklyn, every twenty min- 
utesv The " Brooklyn Bridge," which crosses the East River, and connects 
Brooklyn with New York, is 125 feet above high water; its total length is 
5,989 feet, or about a mile and a quarter; it is 85 feet wide, and its grand 
stone piers rise 278 feet above high water; their size at high-water line is 
140x59 feet. The Bridge cost $15,000,000, and is a marvel of engineering 
skill. Occupying comparatively elevated ground, Brooklyn comm.ands a 
complete view of the adjacent waters and their shores. It is governed by 
a mayor and board of aldermen. Brooklyn has a very large number of 
churches (nearly 300 in all), whence it is often called the " City of Churches." 
It has an immense trade in grain, the warehouses being capable of holding 
about 12,000,000 bushels. It possesses also a National navy yard, which 
embraces 45 acres of land, and magnificent docks, including a wet-dock 
for the largest vessels, the most extensive in the Union. Along the entire 
river front is an almost unbroken line of storehouses. The Atlantic 
Dock warehouses of South Brooklyn, opposite Governor's Island, cover a 
space of 20 acres, and inclose a basin 40 acres in area, and about 25,000 ves- 
sels, exclusive of canal boats and lighters, are said to be annually unloaded 
there. The principal articles are molasses, sugar, grain, coffee, oil, hides, and 
wool. The annual storage of merchandise in Brooklyn is valued at nearly 
$300,000,000. The streets, with the exception of Fulton Street, the principal 
thoroughfare, are generally straight, have a width of from 60 to 100 feet, and 
cross each other at right angles. The large number of persons who reside in 
Brooklyn and do business in New York has caused the city to be termed 
" the bedroom of New York," the largest part of the city being devoted to 
private dwelling-houses. 

Brooklyn is connected with other parts of Long Island by a number of 
railroads, besides lines of city horse railroads in every direction; an elevated 
railroad extends from Fulton Ferry to East New York, a distance of 5^ miles, 
and connects with the Bridge cars. Several other elevated railroads are in 



72 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 

course of construction. The city is well supplied with pure soft water. 
Under the act of consolidation the city comprises Brooklyn, Williamsburgh,. 
Greenpoint, Wallabout, Bedford, New Brooklyn, Bushwick, Gowanus, and 
South Brooklyn, embracing an area of 16,000 acres, or 25 square miles. The 
city is 8 miles long, with a breadth from 2 to 5 miles; it has a water-front on 
the East River and Bay of New York, 8^ miles in length. Along the shore, 
near the end of the Island, is a bluff, which is called the " Brooklyn Heights," 
on which are many fine residences. A large portion of the city is level. 

Williamsburgh, now called Brooklyn, E. D. (eastern district), contains a 
large number of manufacturing establishments, and has its entire water-front 
devoted to commercial purposes. Greenpoint also contains large ship-yards 
and manufactories. 

South Brooklyn has an extensive water-front, and contains large wood, 
coal, stone, and lumber yards, numerous planing-mills, distilleries, breweries,, 
plaster-mills, foundries and machine shops. 

Brooklyn has several parks; one of the finest in the county is Prospect 
Park. It was commenced in 1866, and covers 550 acres, including the Parade 
Ground. The site is one full of natural beauty, and on which some of the 
battles of the Revolution were fought. The Park has a fertile soil, magnificent 
views, fine forest trees, and a large, magnificent lake. It has a nobler effect 
in sylvan features than Central Park. Upon the Plaza at the main entrance 
is a bronze statue of Abraham Lincoln and a beautiful fountain. From 
Lookout Hill can be seen the palatial hotels at Coney Island, which is about 
seven miles distant, and the Atlantic Ocean. A fine wide boulevard lined with 
shade trees extends from the Park to the Island, on which are numerous hos- 
telries. The boulevard is under the supervision of the Park Commissioners, 
is generally in fine condition and well patronized. The Park has 11 miles 
of walks and 10 miles of roads for driving and riding. 

Among the cemeteries which are widely known are Greenwood, Cypress 
Hills, and the Evergreens. 

The more important churches are — St. Ann's, on the Heights, which is a 
fine Episcopal church. The Church of the Holy Trinity is one of the hand- 
somest churches in the country. St. Paul's has a front of 75 feet, and a depth 
of 145 feet. The Church of the Pilgrims is built of gray stone, and inserted 
in the main tower is a piece of the Plymouth Rock; its pastor. Dr. R. S. 
Storrs, is a noted pulpit orator. Plymouth Church has accommodations for 
seating 2,800 persons; the late Henry Ward Beecher was its pastor for forty 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 73 

years, and the desire to hear him preach was so great that many pew-holders 
refused to give up their seats to strangers for the evening service. A Roman 
Catholic cathedral is in process of erection on Lafayette Avenue; it will be 
a very large and imposing structure. The Tabernacle is on Schermerhorn 
Street; the interior is well arranged for seating a large audience; the plan is 
a large semicircle, giving the speaker command of the entire building; its 
pastor is the well-known Rev. T. DeWitt Talmage, 

There are nearly 200 private schools and educational institutions in 
Brooklyn. Among the principal buildings are the City Hall, the Kings 
County Court-house, the new Hall of Records, the new Post-ofifice, the new 
Brooklyn Orphan Asylum, the College of St. John the Baptist, the Art build- 
ing, the Academy of Design, and the Long Island Historical Society. The 
Academy of Music, on Montague Street, was built in i860; it contains seats 
for 2,300 persons. Opposite is the Brooklyn Library; the building was com- 
pleted in 1867, at a cost of $227,000. The Kings County Penitentiary is on 
Nostrand Avenue. The four principal theatres are the Park Theatre, on 
Fulton Street, opposite the City Hall Park; the Brooklyn Theatre, corner of 
Johnson and Washington Streets, on the site of one which was destroyed by 
fire December 6, 1876, causing the death of over 300 persons — the new struct- 
ure has proper means of exit; the Grand Opera House, on Elm Place; 
and the Criterion Theatre, on Fulton Avenue near Grand Avenue. The lat- 
ter was completed in the fall of 1885, and has a very handsome interior. 
There are twenty-one hospitals, dispensaries, and infirmaries, besides numer- 
ous other benevolent institutions. 

The first settlement of Brooklyn was in 1636; it was then called " Breucke- 
len," at which time a few Walloon colonists settled on the spot now known 
as the Wallabout. English and Dutch settlers followed. In 1667 the town 
received a charter from the Governor; in 1666 the first church was erected; 
in 1698 the population was 509 — of these, 65 were slaves; in 1776, on the 
site of the present city, the battle of Long Island was fought, and its neigh- 
borhood was one of the principal seats of the Revolutionary War. Brooklyn 
became a chartered city in 1834, and Williamsburgh became a city in 185 1. 
In 1800 the population of Brooklyn was 3,298; in 1830, 15,292; in 1840, 36,- 
233; in 1850, 96,838; in i860, after its consolidation with Williamsburgh, the 
population was 266,661 ; in 1870 it was 396,099; in 1880, 554,696; and in 1889, 
it was estimated to be 805,855. 



JERSEY CITY. 




ERSEY CITY, the county seat of Hudson County, is situated in 
the State of New Jersey, on the west bank of the Hudson River, 
opposite New York, of which it is in fact, though in another State, 
an extension. Large steam ferry-boats connect it with New York; they are 
hghted with gas and electricity, and travel day and night. In 1802 it con- 
tained but thirteen inhabitants, living in a single house. In 1804 the 
Legislature of the State granted a charter to the "Associates of the Jersey 
Company," who laid out the place in streets in 1820. It was incorporated 
as " the City of Jersey;" in 1838 the name was changed to " Jersey City." 
It is now about 5 miles long and 3 miles wide. Its principal public build- 
ings are the County Court-house, the City Hall, the Jail, and the Market; 
while the business portion of the city has numerous substantial business 
structures, yet it is not as imposing as might be expected from its popula- 
tion, but this can very properly be attributed to its close proximity to New 
York. The city has many handsome residences, many fine school buildings 
and churches. There are several small public squares; some of them 
contain fountains, and are adorned with trees. The Morris Canal, which 
connects the Delaware with the Hudson, terminates here. Numerous lines 
of railway approach New York at this point; among the principal are the 
Pennsylvania, the Erie, the Northern New Jersey, the New Jersey Midland, 
the Reading, the Central of New Jersey, and the New York and Midland. 
The work of constructing a tunnel under the Hudson between Jersey City 
and New York has been in .slow progress several years. 

The city is a part of the New York Customs district, and, therefore, not 
a port of entry. The immense quantities of coal and iron brought to the 
city by the canal and railroads create a large business. The city has large 
manufacturing interests, including extensive glass works, the United States 
Watch Manufactory, steel works, crucible works, boiler works, zinc works, 
railroad repair and supply shops, locomotive works, machine shops, foun- 
dries, sugar refineries, breweries, medals, car springs, pottery, chains and spikes, 
planing-mills, soap and candles, articles in copper, saleratus, oils, fireworks, 
jewelry, drugs, lead pencils, chemicals, etc. Large numbers of animals are 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 75 

slaughtered in the northern part of the city for the New York market. The 
city is suppHed with water from the Passaic River. 

Among the charitable institutions are the City Hospital, the Home for 
Aged Women, and the Children's Home. The number of churches is 60. The 
population in 1880 was 120,728, and in 1887 it was estimated at 185,000. 




CITY OF NEWARK. 

[EWARK is a city and port of entry of New Jersey, and capital of 
Essex County. It is situated on an elevated plain on the right or 
^1 west bank of the Passaic River, 10 miles from New York and 4 
miles from Newark Bay. Its principal street is over 2 miles long, 120 feet 
wide, shaded by great elm trees and bordering on three beautiful parks. The 
population, which has increased very rapidly, was, in 1780, 1,000; in 1870, 
105,059; in 1880, 136,400; and in 1889, between 175,000 and 180,000. The 
amount appropriated for expenditures in one year was $1,742,912. The 
College of New Jersey was located in Newark from 1747 to 1755 ; the Newark 
Academy was founded in 1792. The town was sacked, plundered, and 
nearly destroyed by the British in 1777. Newark is a very beautiful and 
industrious city, and contains 104 churches, an academy, high-school, and 26 
public schools. It has many fine public buildings, among which are the City 
Hall, Court-house, Custom-house and Post-ofifice. Among the prominent socie- 
ties are the N. J. Historical Society, the Newark Library Association, and the 
Y. M. C. A. Among the goods manufactured are carriages, india-rubber goods, 
jewelry, machinery, leather, paper, patent leather, and spool thread ; there 
are also very large breweries, in fact the city is noted for its varied manufact- 
ures, numerous industries, and large life and fire insurance companies. The 
shipping interests are very large, the docks being nearly a mile and a half in 
length. The total capital and assets belonging to the financial institutions 
amount to about $100,000,000. It is the largest city in the State, and contains 
nearly two hundred miles of streets and nearly fifty miles of sewers. Great 
quantities of building material are produced from the brown-stone quarries 
in and near the city. In 1682 Newark was famous for the manufacture 
of cider. In 1665 the colonies of Hartford and New Haven, Conn., being 
united in spite of the opposition of the people of Branford, the latter deserted 



76 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



that part of the country in a body, headed by their pastor, and taking with 
them their famihes and household goods. They bought the land on which 
Newark now stands, from the Hackensack Indians, for £130, 12 blankets^ 
and 12 guns, and there founded their city, laying it out in broad streets. No- 
one was permitted to hold office, or vote, or was a freeman, who did not have 
membership in the Congregational Church. About four miles from Newark 
is the beautiful city of Orange, with a population of 15,000. One of the 
numerous horse railroads connects the two cities. 





BENJAMIN FliANKLIN. 




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^^^^^/W^^^^^^.4^ 'T^'^S^ 





Cl^< 







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FACSIMILE OP LETTER FROM BENJAMIN FRANKLIN TO MR. STRAHAN* 



CITY OF PHILADELPHIA. 




HILADELPHIA is the chief city and seaport of Pennsylvania, and 
the second as to population and importance in the United States. 
It is situated on a plain on the west bank of the Delaware River 

(which separates it from New Jersey), at the mouth of the Schuylkill, which, 

since 1854, the time of the extension of the boundaries of the city to those 

of the county, flows through the 

city and joins the Delaware. The 

city between the two rivers is 

about 3 miles wide, and its water 

front on the Delaware is 23 miles 

in extent. It is 96 'miles from 

New York, 135 from Washing- 
ton, and 96 from the open sea. 

Its extreme length is about 23 

miles north and south, it averages 

about 5^ miles wide east and 

west, and embraces 129 square 

miles. The city, as founded and 

planned in 1682 by William Penn, 

was bounded by Vine and Cedar 

Streets and the two rivers. That 

portion which lies west of the 

Schuylkill is now called West 

Philadelphia. Penn stated : " I 

took charge of the Province of 

Pennsylvania for the Lord's sake. I wanted to afford an asylum for the good 

and oppressed of every nation, and to frame a government which might be 

an example. I desired to show men as good and happy as they could be ; 

and I had kind views to the Indians." With these ends in view he selected 

its name. The Indian name of its original site was Coaquenaka. In 1682 

twenty-three ships arrived containing settlers, who were mostly Friends. 




INDEPENDENCE HALL. 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 8i 

SKETCH OF THE NEW SETTLEMENT. 

In 1684 the new settlement numbered over 300 houses and 2,500 popula- 
tion. It grew rapidly by large immigration from Germany and the North 
of Ireland. Penn returned to London, but revisited the city in 1699, at which 
period the population was 4,500. The city was incorporated in 1701, after 
which Penn took his final departure. In 1704, at the time of the war of Eng- 
land with France and Spain, the Governor of the Province created a militia. 
This was very obnoxious to the Friends, and in order to enlist them in its 
favor the Governor used stratagem. He sent a messenger from Newcastle 
on the P'air Day in 1706, with the news that the enemy's ships were in the 
river. The Governor, with drawn sword and on horseback, urged the people 
to arm for the defence of the city. Great excitement prevailed ; the people 
hid their valuables and fled, but the Quakers were not disturbed, and could 
neither be frightened nor coaxed to take an interest in the movement. When 
the fraud was finally discovered the Governor was displaced. 

In 1 719 was here printed the first American newspaper, the Weekly Mer- 
cury. The Gazette was established in 1728, and afterward edited by Benja- 
min Franklin, who, by the publication of his " Plain Truth," in 1747, was the 
first to rouse a military spirit of enthusiasm among the people, which culmi- 
nated in a military force of 10,000 men. In 1755 a militia bill was passed, 
and Franklin became Colonel of the City Regiment. Philadelphia finally 
became very prominent from 1765 to 1774 in resisting British aggression. At 
Carpenters' Hall, September 5, 1774, was held the first Continental Congress; 
the second was held in the State House, May 10, 1775. It was here that 
Colonel George Washington, of Virginia, on June 15, 1775, was appointed 
General and Commander-in-Chief of the United States Army. On July 4th 
the Declaration of Independence was adopted in the State House, and pro- 
claimed July 8, 1776. The city was in possession of the British from Septem- 
ber, 1777, to June, 1778; at that time the population of the city was .21,767. 
The battle of Germantown, of Revolutionary fame, was fought October 4, 
1777. The city expended much treasure in men and money in the cause of 
the Union. Except the period of the British occupation, the city was the 
capital of Pennsylvania until 1799, and the Government of the Union was 
conducted here from 1790 to 1800. It was the first city in America until 
surpassed by New York. In 1 812 the city was visited by yellow fever; in 
the same year the steam water-works at Fairmount Park were commenced. 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 



r 



^.. 



f^' 



In 1832 the Asiatic cholera caused nearly 1,000 
deaths. In 1837 specie payment was suspended, 
and the failure of the Bank of the United States 
in 1839 caused great depression in commerce. 
Serious riots disturbed the city at different times 
from 1834 to 1844. The Philadelphia, German- 
town & Norristown Railroad was completed in 
1832. Gas was introduced in 1836, and the first 
telegraph lines were established in 1846. The 
great Sanitary Fair held in Logan Square in 
1864 netted over $1,000,000. 

THE CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION 

was opened in Fairmount Park, May 10, 1876,. 
100 years after the Declaration of Independence, 
on a magnificent scale, covering 236 acres. The 
cost of the five principal buildings was $4,500,- 
000. The enclosure contained 200 separate 
buildings. The Main Building covered no less 
than 20 acres, and the roof was 70 feet high. 
It was 1,876 feet long, 464 feet wide, with pro- 
jecting wings in the centre 416 feet long. Space 
was apportioned as follows, in square feet : Ar- 
gentine Republic, 2,861; Austria-Hungary, 24,- 
727 i Belgium, 15,598; Brazil, 6,899; Canada, 
24,118; Chili, 3,244; China, 6,628; France, 45,- 
460; Germany, 29,629; Great Britain and Ire- 
land, 54,155; India and British Colonies, 24,193 ; 
Hawaiian Islands, 1,575; Italy, 8,943; Japan, 
17,831; Luxembourg, 247; Mexico, 6,567; Neth- 
erlands, 15,948; Norway, 6,959; Orange Free 
State, 1,058; Peru, 1,462; Spain and Colonies, 
11,253; Sweden, 17,799; Switzerland, 6,693; 
Tunis, 2,015; Turkey, 3,347; United States, 
1 36, 684. 

This gives a fair idea of the magnitude of 
the main building. Within this vast space the 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 



83 



wealth, power, industries, and greatness of 
the nations were exhibited to millions of ad- 
miring visitors. The exhibition was opened 
every day, except Sundays, for six months ; 
the number of admissions was nearly 10,- 
000,000, of which nearly 8,000,000 paid the 
regular fee of 50 cents, and nearly 1,000,000 
paid the special rate of 25 cents. A large 
building was devoted to the progress of 
modern education. The Women's Pavilion, 
designed to receive the products of wo- 
man's ingenuity, covered an acre of ground. 
The Memorial Hall, or Art Building, re- 
mains as a permanent representative of the 
exhibition. The building is 365 feet long 
by 210 feet wide, and 59 feet high. It is 
made of granite, glass, and iron. It is a 
beautiful structure. Machinery Hall covered 
13 acres, and was the next in size to the main 
building. The United States building was 504 
feet by 300, and the operations of the Gov- 
ernment service were exhibited in this great 
building. Horticultural Hall, which was in- 
tended to be permanent, was built of iron 
and glass, by the city of Philadelphia. Its size 
is 383 feet by 193 feet and 72 feet in height, 
and covers 820 by 540 feet of ground. Sev- 
eral nations had pavilions for their commis- 
sioners and others. There were 26 buildings 
representing as many States. Many private ex- 
hibitors and companies had special buildings 
of their own. Among them were the Tele- 
graph Building, the Transportation Building, 
the Bankers' Building, the American Kinder- 
garten, the Bible Building, and others. The 
ingenuity of man was supplemented by bees 
making honey in the midst of all the crowd. 



84 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 

HISTORICAL AND NOTED BUILDINGS. 

Among the places of historical interest in Philadelphia are — Carpenters' 
Hall, between Third and Fourth Streets, on Chestnut Street ; the legendary 
treaty ground at Shackamaxon, with a monument marking the site of the elm 
tree, erected in 1827; the Germantown battle-ground, and Fort Miflin, on 
the site of the mud fort on the west bank of the Delaware; the old London 
Coffee-House on the southwest corner of Front and Market, and Independ- 
ence Hall, or the old State House, on Chesnut, between Fifth and Sixth 
Streets, built in 1732-35. It was in this building that the second Continental 
Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, and where, July 8, 1776, 
the famous Liberty bell fulfilled the great mission inscribed on it in the words 
of the Scriptures: " Proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all the inhab- 
itants thereof" (Lev. xxv. 10). In one of the rooms of this building is the 
National Museum, filled with relics of the Colonial and Revolutionary history 
of our country. In the adjoining hall Congress met for ten years, and Pres- 
idents Adams and Jefferson were inaugurated. At the southwest corner 
of Seventh and Market is the house in which Jefferson wrote the Declaration 
of Independence. The new County Court House and City Hall is a magnifi- 
cent structure, probably the largest and finest in the country. It is situated 
at the intersection of Broad and Market Streets. It covers nearly 4^2 acres, 
exclusive of the courtyard. The new United States Post-Ofifice is one of the 
finest in America, and is located on Chestnut, Ninth, and Market Streets. 
The Custom-House and Mint are among. the prominent buildings of the city. 
The Masonic Temple, at the corner of Broad and Filbert Streets, is said to 
be the finest Masonic structure in the world. It cost $1,300,000, and is in the 
Norman style. The Government arsenals, Navy Yard, Naval Asylum, and 
Naval Hospital are situated at Bridesburgh and Gray's Ferry Road. 

PARKS AND PLACES OF INTEREST. 

Fairmount Park is nearly 1 1 miles long and 2 miles wide, and is one of 
the finest parks in America, covering, 2,740 acres. Its fine old trees, broad 
expanses of turf, varied surface, and great extent, with the Schuylkill River 
flowing by its side, and the Wissahickon, flowing through a picturesque rocky 
valley clothed with the trees, shrubs, and wild vines of virgin nature, through 
dark dells, broken by numerous waterfalls, give it a different character from 
that of other parks. 



J 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 



85 



Philadelphia has a number of public squares, five of which were laid out 
when the city was founded. Among the daily papers published in Philadel- 
phia twelve have an aggregate circulation of 350,000, and the weeklies have 
a still larger circulation. The city contains over 2,000 public schools; even- 
ing schools are conducted during the autumn and winter months. The 
Girard College is one of the finest architectural buildings in the country. 
The University of Pennsylvania is the outgrowth of the College of Philadel- 
phia, founded through the influence of Dr. Benjamin Franklin and others. 
There are many other fine colleges in Philadelphia, including two dental col- 
leges; also, the Academy of Natural Sciences, which is strictly scientific, and 
has a library of 30,- 
000 volumes and fine 
collections. There are 
also the Wagner In- 
stitute and Franklin 
Institute. The Amer- 
ican Philosophical So- 
ciety was founded in 
1763. There are many 
theological colleges. 
The Byzantine Order 
has a superb structure 
on the west side of 
Broad Street devoted 
to art. It contains a 
copious collection of sculptures and paintings. It was organized in 1803, 
and is the oldest academy of art in the country. There is also a School 
of Design for Women, conducted on a liberal scale, and founded in 1850. 
There are numerous libraries in Philadelphia, the Apprentices' being free. 
The Historical Library of Pennsylvania is very large and valuable. The 
city has numerous charitable institutions of every kind, including 24 hospi- 
tals, 12 dispensaries, 20 asylums, and homes of various kinds. The Bank of 
North America is the oldest in the country. Many of the bank buildings 
have great architectural beauty and merit. On Chestnut Street are located 
some of the best hotels, the Times, Ledger building, many fine business 
structures, the Mint, and several handsome churches. On this street is 
conducted the finest retail trade of the city. In the magnificence of its 




CARPENTERS HALL. 



86 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 

public and private buildings Philadelphia is second only to New York and 
Washington. 

FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS— MANUFACTURES— COMMERCE. 

The great financial centre is the neighborhood of Third Street, the latter 
being considered the Wall Street of Philadelphia. It is situated in the lower 
portion of the city. In this section can be found the great banking and in- 
surance companies, the courts, and the Custom-House. The city is famous 
for its building and loan associations, of which there are about seven hun- 
dred, mostly composed of tradespeople. Philadelphia leads every other city 
in the Union in the number of its manufacturing establishments, also in the 
number of persons employed, in the amount of capital invested, the value of 
the material used, and the variety of articles manufactured. It is second to 
New York only in the value of the products. The banks of the river are 
devoted to commerce, and manufacturing establishments are to be found in 
all directions. Nearly 13,000 manufacturing establishments give employment 
to about 250,000 hands; the capital invested in these establishments amounts 
to over $250,000,000; they produce about $500,000,000 annually. The com- 
merce of the city is of comparatively recent growth, and is of great impor- 
tance. In 1880 the imports amounted to $38,933,832, and exports, $50,685, - 
838; the exports included provisions, breadstuffs, tallow, petroleum, naphtha, 
tobacco, and benzine. The duties received in 1880 were $12,726,376.80. In 
the same year 16,886 male immigrants arrived, and 13,078 females. The coal 
trade of the city is simply enormous, vast quantities being brought here for 
shipment. The lumber trade is very extensive, the supplies coming from the 
northern part of the State, Virginia, and North and South Carolina. Phila- 
delphia is one of the four great centres of the book trade; the others being 
New York, Boston, and Chicago. Publishing is conducted on a very extensive 
scale. It rivals any city in the Union in the manufacture of Family Bibles. 
The oysters of the Chesapeake and of the New Jersey coast form an impor- 
tant branch of trade. An extensive trade is done in Florida oranges, which 
are shipped in vast quantities to Philadelphia every year. It is also one of 
the principal markets for peaches and other fruit. The manufacturing facili- 
ties of the city are very extensive. Among these may be mentioned the coal 
and iron fields in close proximity, and the great water-power which abounds 
in the vicinity. Iron ship building is carried on at the Delaware and at 
Chester. The textile industries employ 75,000 persons, and produce about 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 87 

$90,000,000, distributed as follows: Carpets, $19,000,000; hosiery, $16,500,- 
000; worsted and woolen yarns, $11,000,000; silk and mixed goods, $6,- 
000,000; cotton goods, $19,000,000; woolen and mixed fabrics, $18,500,000. 
The iron and steel production amounts to $30,000,000; machinery, $iq,ooo,- 
000; sugar, $20,000,000; building materials, $10,000,000. Boots and shoes, 
chemicals, hardware, tools, furniture, gold and silverware are among the other 
important industries. The Customs district includes the city of Camden, N. 
]., and all the shores of the Delaware in Pennsylvania and tributaries. 
There are many regular lines of steamers to Southern and various coastwise 
ports, a line to Havana and New Orleans, a line to Liverpool, and another to 
Antwerp. 

GROWTH AND GOVERNMENT OF THE CITY. 

The city has about 800 miles of paved streets. The streets intersect at 
right angles, and the cross-streets, running east and west, are in numerical 
order from the Delaware River, commencing with Front, First, Second, 
Third, etc. In numbering the houses 100 numbers are allotted to each block. 
In going north or south Market Street is the point where the enumeration 
begins. The city is exceedingly healthy, has an abundance of water and good 
drainage, and its growth is extraordinary. Its population in 1683 was 500; 
in 1777,23,734; in 1800,70,287; in 1850,300,365; in i860, after the exten- 
sion of the city, 508,034; 1870, 674,022: 1889, 846,980; 1886, 1,100,000. The 
annual city expenditures are about $15,000,000. Philadelphia contains over 
160,000 dwelling-houses, all of solid material. The great extent of territory is 
such that the necessity of tenement-houses has not existed as in other cities; 
it is therefore pre-eminently a city of homes, as on the average a house con- 
tains only five persons. The city has over 30 markets, which furnish good 
food in great abundance. The water-works are controlled by the city, and 
the supply is obtained from the Delaware and the Schuylkill. Philadelphia 
contains 70 public fountains, 61 of which were erected by the Philadelphia 
Fountain Society. There are over 150 miles of sewers. The Fire and Police 
Departments are very efficient. 

The municipal government consists of the Mayor and Recorder, a Select 
and Common Council. The Mayor, elected' for three years, has control of 
the police, and the right to approve or veto the ordinances of the City 
Councils. The Select Council consists of 31 members, representing the 31 
Wards, elected by the people for three years; the Common Council contains 



88 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 

nearly lOO members, each representing 2,ooo tax-payers, elected for two 
years. The management of the city is controlled by councils, and the differ- 
ent departments, trusts, and commissions. The Controller, Treasurer, Solic- 
itor, Collector of Taxes, and Commissioners are elected by the people. 
Philadelphia is represented in the State Legislature by 8 Senators and 38 
Assemblymen, and in Congress by 5 members. The United States Circuit 
and District Courts for Eastern Pennsylvania, and terms of the Supreme 
Court of Pennsylvania are held in Philadelphia. There are four Common 
Pleas Courts, Courts of Oyer and Terminer, and of Quarter Sessions, and an 
Orphans' Court. 

RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS. 

There are in Philadelphia about 650 religious congregations. The church 
having the greatest amount of historical interest is probably Christ Churchy 
which occupies the site of a frame building, erected in 1695, on Second Street^ 
above Market. This, after many enlargements, finally gave place to the 
present noble structure, a portion of which was finished in 1731, and the 
whole finall}' completed in 1754. Its chime of bells, which was cast in Lon- 
don, was the first used in the United States. Benjamin Franklin, Washing- 
ton, and Adams worshipped in this church, and it was there that John Penn 
was buried. Some of the communion plate still in use was presented by 
Queen Anne. In the crypt of the school-house lie the remains of Robert 
Morris and Bishop White of Revolutionary fame; In the burying-ground 
belonging to the church at Fifth and Arch Streets lie the remains of Peyton 
Randolph, President of the first Continental Congress; Major-General Charles 
Lee, Benjamin Franklin, and Deborah, his wife. St. Peter's Church-yard 
contains the remains of Commodore Stephen Decatur. David Rittenhouse, 
one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, sleeps in the church- 
yard of the old Pine Street Presbyterian Church. The oldest church in the 
city, except Christ Church, is the Gloria Dei, dedicated in 1700; originally 
connected with the Lutheran Church in Sweden, but for 50 years past with 
the Protestant Episcopal Church. Conspicuous for architectural beauty may 
be mentioned the Roman Catholic Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul, Logan 
Square ; St. Mark's Protestant Episcopal Church, Locust Street ; the West 
Arch Street Presbyterian Church; the Beth-Eden Baptist Church, Broad 
Street; the Arch Street Methodist Church, and the Rodef Sholem Syna- 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 89 

gogue. The whole number of cemeteries and burying-grounds in Philadel- 
phia is 45. The first is Laurel Hill, picturesquely beautiful. 

CLUBS— RAILROADS— BRIDGES, ETC. 

There are thirteen bridges across the Schuylkill, seven of which are built 
of solid material and six of wood. The Callowhill Street Bridge, with the 
approaches, is 2,730 feet long; it is 50 feet above tide-water, and is a work of 
great engineering skill. The river span is 348 feet, and a span which is 
thrown over the Pennsylvania Railroad is 140 feet. This bridge has an upper 
and a lower passage-way, the upper being 32 feet higher than the lower one. 
The South Street Bridge is 2,419 feet long. The handsomest bridge is the 
Girard. It is 1,000 feet long, 100 feet wide, and has five spans; it cost $1,- 
404,445. Small steamboats run on the Schuylkill, and seven ferries connect 
the city with points in New Jersey. 

Philadelphia contains five armories. Clubs of various descriptions, social 
and sporting, are numerous. Among the social clubs the Philadelphia, Union 
League, and Reform Clubs are conspicuous. The Union League House has 
the finest building; it is in the French renaissance style. Amusement and 
recreation have a superb temple in the American Academy of Music, Broad 
and Locust Streets, elegantly fitted within, with a seating capacity for 2,900. 
The leading theatres are the Walnut, Arch and Chestnut. The Young Men's 
Christian Association has a building of imposing architecture at Fifteenth 
and Chestnut Streets. 

In 1889 there were twenty lines of horse-cars, with an invested capital of 
over $13,000,000, the principal railroads connecting with the city being the 
Pennsylvania, the Bound Brook, the Philadelphia & Erie, the Reading & 
North Pennsylvania, the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore. 



CITY OF BOSTON. 




OSTON is the great metropolis of New England, the capital of 
Massachusetts, and of our Amercian cities second to New York in 
commerce. It is 44 miles northeast of Providence, and 232 miles 
from New York. It is situated at the mouth of the Charles River, on the 
western extremity of Massachusetts Bay. The spot was first visited by 
Europeans in 162 1. In 1625 William Blackstone, an English clergyman, 

settled on Beacon Hill. 
In 1629 Charles I. 
granted a charter con- 
stituting " the Gov- 
ernor and Company 
of the Massachusetts 
Bay in New England," 
and twelve men of ex- 
tensive fortune, among 
whom were John Win- 
throp and Richard 
Saltonstall, entered 
Boston June 17, 1630. 
The city, which was 
incorporated in 1822, 
lARK sTRKKi. hosTuN. ^^^^, contaius ncady 

400 miles of streets, which cost over $36,000,000. There are many bridges 
connecting Boston with the suburbs. The milldam, which cost $700,000, is 
a continuation of Beacon Street, and once inclosed 600 acres of "flats" which 
were covered by the tide; these have since been filled in, and that section 
now contains some of the finest dwellings and churches in Boston. The 
scenery in the suburbs of Boston is very beautiful, and many of the private 
residences are very elegant. 




PLACES OF HISTORICAL INTEREST. 
Among the buildings remarkable for their historical interest is Christ 
church, the oldest church in the city, and the one from the steeple of which, 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



91 



in the Revolutionary War, Paul Revere's signal was hung out by Captain 
John Pulling, merchant, of Boston. The Rev. Mather Byles, Jr., who was 
rector of this church during the Revolution, left town on account of his 
attachment to the royal cause. The old South church, built in 1730, is one 
of the most famous in the country. In this building Joseph Warren delivered 
his memorable oration on the anniversary of the " Boston Massacre," March 
5, 1776. Here the patriots met to discuss the tax on tea. In 1775 the build- 
ing was " desecrated " by British soldiers, who tore out its galleries, filled it 
with earth, and used it as a place for cavalry drill. The most famous, per- 
haps, is Faneuil Hall, well known as the "Cradle of Liberty," from the fact 
that, during the period preceding the Revolution, it was used for public 
gatherings at which the patriotic spirit of the colonists was stirred by the 
eloquence of the great pa- 
triots. Faneuil Hall was 
built in 1742, destroyed by 
fire in 1761, and rebuilt 
in 1762. Before 1822 all 
town meetings were held 
in this famous hall. 

The Common, which 
covers 48 acres, contains 
trees over 200 years old. 
Many of the avenues of 
the city contain fine old 
English elms, which are not surpassed by any in the United States. The 
Common was dedicated to the use of the public by the founders of the city. 
The "Public Garden" is an extension of the Common, containing nearly 25 
acres, separated from the Common only by a street. It is a botanical garden, 
containing a small lake, a conservatory, and numerous fine statues. The city 
has over twenty smaller parks. Commonwealth Avenue is a fine boulevard, 
250 feet wide and nearly two miles long; in the centre are double rows of 
trees, and walks through grassplots, shrubbery, flowers, etc. 

The city has, in public places, statues of Charles Sumner, Josiah Quincy, 
Governor Winthrop, Benjamin Franklin, Edward Everett, Horace Mann, 
Alexander Hamilton, Daniel Webster, Christopher Columbus, George Wash- 
ington, Governor Andrew, and Samuel Adams. Besides these there is in 
Park Square a group representing the emancipation of slaves, and on the 




CUSTOM-HOUSE, BOSTON. 



92 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 



Common another to the memory of the National soldiers who died in the 
War of the Rebellion. 

The waters of Lake Cochituate, distant 20 miles, have since 1848 been 
conveyed by a brick conduit into the grand reservoir of Brookline, and tlicnce 
been carried into the subordinate reservoirs respectively of the different sec- 
tions of the city. The annexation of Charlestown brought with it the waters 
of Mystic Lake. Boston, as the centre — social, political, and commercial — of 
the best educated and most intelligent State in the Union, is pre-eminent 
throughout the Republic in literature and science. Its trade, likewise, is 
marvellous; it is, in fact, more marvellous, in proportion to physical facilities, 
than even that of New York ; for while the latter city, with the lakes on the 
one side and the ocean on the other, and with the Hudson as a link between 

them, drains regions of vast 
extent and singular fertilit}', 
Boston, to say nothing of 
rugged soil and ungenial cli- 
mate, is cut off from the in- 
, terior, such as it is, by the 
;, entire want of inland \\'aters. 
- But what New York has so 
^ largely inherited from nature, 
Boston has in some measure 
created for itself. By eight 
great systems of railway it reaches, besides the coasts to the north and south, 
the St. Lawrence and the lakes, the Hudson and the Mississippi; while 
it virtually connects those channels of communication with Europe and its 
network of iron roads. In several departments of maritime traflfic, such as 
the coasting intercourse and the trade with Russia, India, and China, Boston 
possesses exceptional advantages. 

COMMERCE AND MANUFACTURES. 

Its harbor is open at all seasons, and its deep water front affords accon";- 
modation for loading and unloading vessels without delay. It affords anchor 
age for over 500 vessels of the largest class. In the harbor are more than 
fifty beautiful islands. The principal entrance to the harbor is very narrow ; 
it is between Castle and Governor's Islands, and is well defended by Fort 
Independence and Fort Warren. There are stationary elevators under which 




THE HANCOCK HOUSE, BOSTON. 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 93 

steamers can be loaded. Boston has made great progress in competing for 
the export trade, and the opening of the " through business," which first orig- 
inated in Boston, has done much for her shipping interests. Boston claims 
to be the shortest and cheapest line between the great Northwest and Eu- 
rope. In extent of imports Boston ranks next to New York, and third city 
in the United States in the value of foreign commerce — New York being first 
and New Orleans second. The total value of the commerce in Boston in 
one year was $87,055,255. Over 1,000 vessels belong to the port, with an ag- 
gregate tonnage of nearly 400,000. The principal industries are 45 book- 
publishing establishments, over 100 printing houses, 55 cabinet-ware factories 
about 35 book-binderies, 40 establishments for the manufacture of machinery, 
2^, hat and cap factories, 30 establishments for the manufacture of watches. 
It is a centre of the boot and shoe trade, the leather trade, and of the trade 
in foreign and domestic dry-goods. The other manufactures of the city are 
many and varied, including — besides ship-building, sugar refining, and leather 
■dressing — clothing, jewelry, chemicals, brass and iron castings, cars, carriages, 
pianos, upholstery, glass, organs, melodeons, etc., etc. The business of the 
city is promoted by 61 national banks — more than any other city in the Union 
has — with a capital of more than $57,000,000. Thirty of these have cash 
■capitals of $1,000,000 or more each. 

PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS— GROWTH OF BOSTON, ETC. 

The first " meeting-house " was erected near the head of State Street, 
1632. John Cotton was one of its pastors. The city contains now over 200 
•churches. Free schools, open to all, were established in the United States 
first in Boston 250 years ago, and the excellence of the system of public in- 
struction there has been so great that many other cities have taken its 
schools for patterns. The university at Cambridge properly belongs to the 
Boston school system, for it was founded by the men who settled Boston, 
and was intended for the education of the youth of the city and surrounding 
country. Indeed, " Newe Town," as Cambridge was first called, was intended 
for the capital of the commonwealth. Harvard College was founded in 1638, 
and for two generations was the only college in New England. The public 
Latin School in Boston was founded in 1635, the Institute of Technology in 
1 861, Boston College in 1863, Boston University in 1869. There are more 
than 200 public schools in the city. Private schools abound. The chief 
libraries are the Public, with 459,031 volumes, and 115,000 pamphlets, etc., 



94 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 

distributing 1,500,000 volumes a year; the Athenaeum, 125,000 volumes, cir- 
culating 75,000 volumes a year; the Historical Society's library, containing 
75,000 books and pamphlets, many of them being among the rarest of publi- 
cations ; the State Library, with 50,000 volumes ; the Social Law Library, with 
16,000 law books; the library of the Historic-Genealogical Society, 75,000^ 
books and pamphlets; the General Theological Library, with 15,000 volumes. 

The old State House is situated at the head of State Street. It was on 
this spot that the old Town House was built in 1763, it was in front of this 
building that the " Boston Massacre " occurred, at the time of the excitement 
caused by the Stamp Act. The Declaration of Independence was read from 
the balcony of this building. 

On a peninsula to the north of East Boston, rises Bunker's Hill, so famous 
in the war of independence; while the Dorchester Heights, little less famous, 
occupy the centre of South Boston; and, lastly, the peninsula of Old Boston 
seems to have originally taken the name of Tremont, from its three mounts 
or hillocks. 

Boston has many public buildings worthy of notice. Among those that 
are remarkable for architectural beauty or grandeur are the United States 
Post-of^ce, on Post-office Square, Trinity church, the Museum of Fine Arts, 
the Hotel Vendome, the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, the State House, the 
City Hall, the English High and Latin School on Warren Avenue, and the new 
" Old South Church." The English High and Latin School was begun in 
1877, and the portion to be used for school purposes cost more than $400,000. 
The remainder is used by officers of the school board. The entire edifice is 
one of the largest for educational purposes in America. 

Boston's original owner, John Blackstone, sold out his right and title, in 
1635, for £30. With a site so well chosen and, doubtless, also through the 
industry and enterprise of its Puritan occupiers, the new town increased so 
steadily in wealth and population, that in less than a century and a half it 
became the foremost champion of colonial independence. Since then it has 
overleaped its natural limits, swarming off, as it were, into an island toward 
the northeast, and into the mainland on the southeast, and consists of Old, 
East, and South Boston; Roxbury, annexed in 1868; Dorchester, annexed in 
1870; and Charlestown, Brighton, and West Roxbury, annexed in 1873; 
which are connected by bridges. An immense dam, called the Western 
Avenue, connects the whole with the inner side of the harbor. All the divis- 
ions of the city are of an uneven surface; undulation, in fact, is a character- 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 



95 



istic of the entire neighborhood — continent, islands, and peninsulas alike. 
The inhabitants are essentially of the old British type, as befits the descend- 
ants of the " Pilgrim Fathers." 

In 1880 the 250th anniversary of the settlement of Boston was celebrated. 
Boston was a town for 192 years. In 1700 the population was only about 
7,000; in 1790, 18,000; in 1830,61,000; in 1870, 250,000; in 1880, 363,968; in 
1889, 410,000. If we add to this the population of the City of Cambridge, 
which in 1889 was 70,000, it brings the population up to 480,000. The area, 
of the city (1889) was 31 square miles. 




BOSTON PASSENGER STATION OF THE OLD COLONY RAILROAD. 



THE CITY OF CAMBRIDGE. 




AMBRIDGE is three miles northwest of Boston, situated on the 
west of the Charles River, which separates it from Boston, and is 
one of the county seats of Middlesex County. It is practically a 
part of Boston, as Alleijheny is of Pittsburgh or Brooklyn is of New York. 
Here, in 1638, within eighteen years after the landing of the Pilgrim 

Fathers, was founded 
Harvard University by 
the Rev. John Harvard, 
who bequeathed it a leg- 
acy of about $4,000, and 
which has gradually been 
endowed to the amount 
of $1,000,000. It is the 
oldest institution of the 
kind in America. In ad- 
dition to the collegiate 
department proper, the 
University includes a 
theological, law, scien- 
tific, and medical school, 
and a department for 
such as wish to prepare 
themselves for business 
avocations without go- 
ing through a classical 




Longfellow's residknck, Cambridge, 



course. Cambridge is rapidly advancing. The population in 1830 was 6,072 ; 
that of 1870 was 39,634; 1880, 52,669; 1889, 70,000. The city consists of 
North, East, Cambridgeport, and Old Cambridge. It covers an area of S}4 
square miles. It is beautifully laid out in fine broad avenues with shade 
trees. It was under one of these trees that Washington took command of the 
Re\-olutionary forces in 1775. The house in which Longfellow the poet lived 
was formerly occupied by Washington. The College buildings occupy four- 
teen acres and are situated in Old Cambridge, They are shaded by fine old 
elm trees. 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



97 



Among the conspicuous buildings near the College are the Harvard Law 
School; the Lawrence Scientific School; the Museum of Comparative 
Zoology, founded by Louis Agassiz ; the Observatory, and Memorial Hall, 
which is 310 feet by 115, with a tower 200 feet high, erected to the memory of 
Harvard graduates and students who lost their lives in the service of their 
country during the Civil War. This is conceded to be the grandest College 
Hall in the world. It contains three apartments — a memorial vestibule, a 
dining-hall which seats 1,000 persons, and the Sanders theatre for large 
academic assemblages. A fine granite monument, erected by the city in honor 
of the soldiers who lost their lives in the Rebellion, stands near the college. 

Mount Auburn is one of the 
finest cemeteries in the country. 
It is laid out in a picturesque man- 
ner and occupies 125 acres of hill 
and valley. It was dedicated in 
1 83 1, and is the oldest of the beau- 
tiful burying-places of America. 

Cambridge is not much of a | 
business centre, but is, to a great 
extent, a home for the people of 
Boston. Among- its industries 




GORE HALL, CAMBRIDGE. 



may be mentioned the manufac-'"^ 
ture of steam-engines, locomo- 
tives, cabinet-ware, chemicals, bis- 
cuit, brushes, candles, soap, chairs, carriages, glass, marble, books, etc., etc. 
The University printing-of^ce is located here, and the Riverside Press; the 
former is the oldest printing establishment in the Union. 

Bridges over Charles River connect Cambridge with Boston, Brighton, and 
Brookline. Horse railroads connect with all adjacent towns, and the Boston 
and Lowell and the Fitchburg railroads pass through East Cambridge. 

Cambridge has a large number of fine public schools, thirty-two churches, 
and several newspapers. The place was first settled as Newtown in 1630. At 
that time it was intended by Winthrop and others to make it the principal 
town in the colony. Mr. Hooker was settled as the first minister in 1632. 
In 1638 a vote was passed appropriating money to establish a public school, 
to which was added the large grant, as above, by Rev. John Harvard, of 
Charlestowii. The city was incorporated in 1846. It now has a regular City 
Government, vested in a Mayor, Aldermen, and Common Council. 




NEW ORLEANS SCENERY. 

1. Metaire Cemetery. 2. Jackson Square. 3. Garrier Street. 4. View from St. Patrick's Cathedral, 

5. Stonewall Jackson Monument. 6. Robert E. Lee Monument. 7. West End Promenade. 

8. Entrance to Metaire Cemetery. 9. West End Hotel. 10. Tombs Metaire Cemetery. 

11. Staircase to Grand Opera House. 12. On the Levee. 



CITY OF NEW ORLEANS. 




EW ORLEANS, the metropolis of Louisiana, and a port of entry, 
is situated on the left bank of the Mississippi, io8 miles from 
its mouth. It ranks next to New York in the value of its exports 
and foreign commerce. Nearly all the streets running parallel with the 
Mississippi River, from the lower to the upper part of the city, are about 
12 miles long; the streets running at right angles to these descend from 
the river bank to the swamps ; the drainage is by canals which open into 




LAFAYETTE SQUARE, NEW ORLEANS. 

Lake Pontchartrain, which is on a level with the Gulf of Mexico. The city 
being built on ground lower than the high-water level, is protected from in- 
undations by the levee or embankments, which extend on both banks of the 
river for several hundred miles. About half of its 60 square miles of territory 
is closely inhabited, while the rest is nearly all swamp. The city extends 
along the river on an inner and outer curve, giving it the shape of the letter S. 
The older portion, extending around the outer curve, gave it the name of 
the " Crescent City." New Orleans is the great port of transshipment for a 
large portion of the crops of the Southwestern States, and the produce of the 
vast region drained by the Mississippi and its tributaries. It commands 



icx) GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 

10,000 miles of steamboat navigation, and is the natural entrepot of one of the 
richest regions of the world. In 1861 the city had arrived at its greatest 
commercial prosperity ; in that year it received and handled 460,000 hogs- 
heads of sugar and 2,255,448 bales of cotton. Its commerce and general 
prosperity were greatly retarded by the War, and since that period by polit- 
ical agitation and severe visitations of yellow fever; yet, notwithstanding 
these drawbacks, its imports average about $12,000,000 and its exports nearly 
$100,000,000. The Custom-house is one of the largest buildings in America. 
In consequence of its natural advantages, geographical location, and the 
recent navigation improvements in the river, the commerce of New Orleans 
is destined to be greatly increased, and the probabilities are that it will event- 
ually be one of the first cities in America. It is generally conceded that New 
Orleans is an unhealthy city to reside in ; its vital statistics, however, show 
plain!)- that it is not exceptionally so in comparison with other cities in the 
United States and throughout the world. Many sanitary improvements have 
been introduced since the yellow-fever epidemic of 1878. It is seldom that 
the temperature is in the extreme, ranging from 50° to 85°, the general aver- 
age being about 68°. New Orleans bears the impress of three distinct civili- 
zations in her society, her architecture, and her laws. It was settled in 1718 
by the French; in 1762 it was transferred to Spain with Louisiana; and in 1800 
retransferred to France, and sold in 1803, by Napoleon I., with a vast terri- 
tory, for $15,000,000, to the United States. At this time the population was 
about 8,000, mostly French and Spanish. It was successfully defended in 
181 5 by General Jackson, afterward President, against the British. The city 
became an important centre of military operations during the War for the 
Union. Louisiana having seceded in i860, a Federal fleet blockaded the city. 
Farragut, with an expedition of gun-boats, forced the defences near the 
entrance to the river on April 24, 1862. The city was forced to surrender, 
and was then occupied by General Benjamin F. Butler, as military governor. 
Among the buildings of fine architectural appearance are the Roman 
Catholic cathedral, on Lafayette Square, facing the levee; the Mint, the Post- 
offlce, the City Hall, the Custom-house, and State-house. The hotels, 
theatres, and public buildings are on a magnificent scale. There are numerous 
hospitals, infirmaries, and asylums, several colleges, and 145 churches. 
Besides the great river. New Orleans has railways connecting it with all parts 
of the country. The soil is full of water, so that no excavations can be made. 
The largest buildings have no cellars below the surface, and in the cemeteries 




COTTON EXCHANGE. NEW ORLEANS. 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 



103 



there are no graves, but the dead are placed in tombs or " ovens," five or six 
tiers above ground. To the stranger the long streets of tombs are somewhat 
depressing. With a view to burning the remains a Cremation society was 
organized in the city a few years ago. The water is supplied from the river 
for household purposes, except drinking, for which rain-water only, kept in 
cisterns, is used. 

There are numerous public parks, several canals, and 16 markets. The 
best streets are wide, 
bordered with trees, and 
are very attractive in ap- 
pearance ; some of them 
paved and some of them 
shelled, all lined with 
princely residences set 
with gardens, where the 
palm and magnolia are 
in their glory, and the 
roses blossom in mid- 
winter. Canal Street, 
which is the great wide 
thoroughfare, has many 
fine stores and elegant 
private residences. The 
continuation of Canal 
Street is a fine shell road 
to the lake, the shores 
of which contain an in- 
exhaustible quantity of 
white shells. 

The manufactures, which are small in proportion to the commerce, con- 
sist of oil, syrup, soap, cotton-seed oil, sugar refineries, distilleries, and brew- 
eries. There are a large number of insurance companies, banking institutions, 
towboat companies, and custom-house warehouses. 

The city has a Mayor, and seven ofificers, known as administrators. The 
police are mounted, and under the control of the Governor of the State. 
The public schools, of which there are nearly 100, are also under State con- 
trol, the city providing for their support. Among the other educational in- 




BOAT CLUB HOUSE AT NEW ORLEANS, LA. 



I04 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 



stitutions are the Mechanical and Agricultural College, the Dental College, 
the Jesuit College, and the University of Louisiana. There are about 40 
Catholic churches, and a large Catholic population, consisting of French, 
Irish, Italians, and Spanish. 

In 1820 the population of New Orleans had increased to 27,000; in i860, 
to 168,823; and consisted of Americans, French, Creoles, Irish, Germans, 
Spaniards, etc. In 1870 it was 191,418; in 1880, 216,090; and in 1889, 250,000. 

Before the mint was established in New Orleans the coins used were 
Spanish, the dollar being the Spanish milled dollar. There were several other 
coins, including the pistareen (20 cts.), and the picayune, the latter, being 
equal to 6% cts., was the smallest coin used. After the mint was established, 
and previous to the Civil War, our nickel was the smallest coin in circulation, 
and many used to say that they did not want any " nasty dirty cents." 




TIIK M \i.\ l.i ILDING, WORLDS KXlo.sl 1 1* >.\. 



To say the least, it is a wonderful city, and has a great future. It has 
some of the finest restaurants in the world. Hospitality is the rule and not 
the exception ; hearts appear to widen, nature expands under the influence 
of the genial southern sun, and a stranger cannot remain a stranger in New 
Orleans long. 

New Orleans has been known as the Paris of America, the home of refine- 
ment, wealth, and luxury, and the abode of pleasure. It is a most cosmopol- 
itan city ; and its ways partake largely of the traditional habits of both 
Spanish and French towns. It is gay, yet sad. Its people are fond of idle- 
ness, yet build up and sustain a great commerce. It is an enigma. The 
streets in the French quarter are narrow. It may be Sunday morning, but 
trade is going on briskly. The names of streets and firms are all those of a 
foreign people. Here and there one encounters a word in Spanish or Italian. 

The great Cosmopolitan French Market, where one may buy almost any- 
thing that can be named, rambles along in several squares of low, densely 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 



105 



populated sheds, with a labyrinth of narrow alley-ways. It is quite the thing 
to resort here early on Sunday morning, and, taking a cup of excellent coffee 
from one of the many stands, mingle with the populace for an hour, and enter 
into the spirit of their Sunday bargain-making. 

From the French Market it is a pleasant walk along the broad levee, 
thronged at all times with people who have business upon the great marine 
highway which bisects the Union. Here are acres of cotton, of molasses in 
huge hogsheads, and of tobacco or general merchandise. The huge steamers, 
of the curious pattern peculiar to Western rivers, are ranged along the levee 
for miles; their blunt noses run diagonally up against the sloping shore; long 
gang-planks are thrown out and double ranks of sable roustabouts go and 
come like ants with their burdens, singing in time with their work. 

The merchant will admire the beautiful structure of the Cotton Exchange. 




UNITED STATES AND STATE EXHIBITS BUILDING. 



The club life of the city is a feature, and the restaurants, saloons, and bill- 
iard parlors, theatres and concert-halls, with their myriad lights, impart a 
Parisian-like effect to the streets in the evening. Canal Street is the great 
thoroughfare and fashionable promenade of the city. With its beautiful 
buildings and picturesque walks, illuminated by the faces and figures of the 
most beautiful women in America, gay with showy equipages and brilliant 
with the displays of the great shops, Canal Street will be found to rival in 
attractions the thoroughfares of many of the cities of this or any other land. 



THE WORLD'S EXPOSITION OF 1883. 

Fortunately for the World's Exposition, its resources, though not lavish^ 
were abundant for all the purposes of providing ample space, securing neces- 
sary attractions and promoting the completest success. The appropriation 
by the General Government of $1,300,000, the contribution of the citizens of 



io6 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



New Orleans of $500,000, and the appropriation by the City of New Orleans 
and the State of Louisiana each of $100,000, afforded an ample source for the 
purposes mentioned. The management of the Exposition had been benefited 
by the experience gained by others in conducting like undertakings. It did 
not consider it politic nor necessary to give to temporary structures the same 
degree of elaboration and detail that should be given to those that were in- 
tended for permanence. So that, as an instance, the main building of the 
World's Exposition, while affording fifty per cent, more space than the main 
building of the Philadelphia Centennial, and being fully as pleasing in archi- 
tectural design and appearance, affording equal facilities in every respect for 
position, inspection, and display, did not cost one-fourth as much to erect. 
The same can be said of the other structures. 

The carnival pageants, which occurred about the middle of the Exposi- 
tion period, were the most elaborate and brilliant of this world-wide famed 
festival. 




COMFORl'S UK MODERN TRAVEL — THE DRAWINC-ROOM CAR OF TO-DAY. 



CITY OF SAN FRANCISCO. 

AN FRANCISCO is the most important city on the Pacific Coast 
of North America. It is the capital of San Francisco County, 
Cahfornia. The city and county, which were consoHdated in 
1856, contain an area of 4if square miles. The city is situated at the north 
«nd of a peninsula 20 miles long, and, at this end, six miles wide, which 





THE BALDWIN HOUSE. 



separates the ocean from the Bay of San Francisco, and comprises, in ad- 
dition to the northern part of the peninsula, several islands, some of which are 
24 miles out in the Pacific. It is about five miles south of the Golden Gate, 
which is three miles wide, and is the outlet, leading west through the range of 
mountains on the coast, and connecting the bay with the Pacific Ocean. 
Table Hill, on the north of this strait, is 2,500 feet high. The city enjoys a 
monopoly of the commerce on the North Pacific Coast in consequence of its 
harbor, which is decidedly the finest on the western coast of North America. 



io8 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 

The bay extends 50 miles in a direction slightly east of south, and is in some 
parts 20 miles wide. The Guadaloupe River empties itself into the south 
end of the bay. At the north the bay communicates, by a strait very much 
like the Golden Gate, with San Pablo Bay, which is about 15 miles in diameter, 
which receives the waters of the two principal rivers of California, the Sacra- 
mento and San Joaquin. The climate is mild and healthy; the temperature 
in January is 49°; in July, 58°; and averages about 56°. The summer is 
exceedingly cool and delightful. About 50 ocean steamers run from this 
port regularly to Japan, Australia, China, Panama, Mexico, Victoria, and to 
domestic ports on the Pacific Ocean, besides many inland steamers which 
ply on the tributaries to the bay. About 5,000 sea-going vessels arrive in 
San Francisco annually. Four railroads, the Central Pacific, the North 
Pacific Coast, the California Pacific, and the San Francisco and North Pacific, 
terminate on the Bay of San Francisco, being connected with the city by 
steam-ferries, the Southern Pacific being the only railroad which terminates 
in the city. A part of the land upon which the city stands was quite hilly, 
but has been leveled. The soil is sandy and unproductive. The connection 
of the Central Pacific Railroad with the Union Pacific Railroad, completed 
in 1870, makes San Francisco an important point as the commercial highway 
from Europe and the eastern United States to Asia. In 1776 a Spanish mil- 
itary post was established on the present site of the city. A mission of San 
Franciscan Friars was commenced in the same year by two Spanish monks for 
converting Indians. This mission flourished, and in 1825 had 1,800 Indians 
under its care, and possessed 76,000 cattle and 97,000 sheep. In 1835, the 
property of the mission having been secularized, a village was laid out and 
called Yerba Buena. The name was changed to San Francisco in 1847; "^^ 
this time the population was only 450. 

In 1848 the discovery of gold in California created an immense excite- 
ment, and people flocked there from all parts of the world. The growth of 
San Francisco from that time was marvelous. In three years the population 
had increased from 450 to 25,000, and the city was then incorporated (1850). 
In 1849-51 the city was visited by several large fires which devastated the busi- 
ness portion. Slight earthquakes are frequent, but do little damage. In 1851-56 
the criminal classes were so numerous and lawless, and the municipal govern- 
ment so corrupt, that the citizens, in order to protect themselves, organized \igi- 
lance committees, which summarily dealt with a number of public criminals and 
awed others into subjection. Since that time the city has been more orderly. 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 



109 



It was here that, in 1877-78, Dennis Kearney created so much excitement, and 
from which trouble was apprehended. San Francisco has probably the finest 
hotels in the world, among which is the Baldwin House, which, it is stated, 
cost $3,500,000 in construction. It is one of the most magnificent buildings 
of the kind in the world. The Palace Hotel is said to be the largest, and for 
architectural beauty is rarely excelled. It cost $3,250,000 in land and con- 
struction. Both these houses are first-class in all their appointments. The 
Cosmopolitan, the Occidental, and the Lick House are also first-class hotels. 
The custom of residing in hotels is very popular in San Francisco, not only 




WAR VESSEL IN THE DRY DOCK, MARE ISLAND NAVY YARD, SAN FRANCISCO. 



for single men, but also for families; and some of the hotels have accommo- 
dations for 1,200 guests. Several of the public buildings are fine specimens 
of architecture. Among these are the new City Hall, which cost $4,000,000; 
the Merchants' Exchange, the Mercantile Library building, the Bank of Cali- 
fornia, the new U. S. Branch Mint. The Custom-house and Post-office is a 
plain, substantial building. In the southern portion of the city, especially in 
Dupont and Stockton streets, are a large number of fine, handsome, brick resi- 
dences. The fashionable promenades, on which are the great retail stores, are 
Montgomery, Market, and Kearney Streets. On California Street can be found 
the principal banks and brokers' and insurance oflfices. In Front, Sansome. 



no GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

and Battery Streets can be found the principal wholesale houses. Many of 
the private residences are built of wood, which in many instances are very 
handsome, and the grounds laid out with flowers and evergreens. The 
streets are wide, and cross each other at right angles ; there are no shade 
trees. The business portion, which is closely built up, is paved with Belgian 
blocks and cobble-stones. There are nearly lOO churches in the city, which 
is the residence of an Episcopal bishop and a Roman Catholic archbishop. 
The most important church edifices are St. Mary's Cathedral and St. Patrick's 
Church (both Roman Catholic), the latter being the finest church edifice on 
the Pacific Slope; Grace Church and Trinity Church (both Episcopal) are fine 
structures. The First Unitarian Church is considered one of the finest buildings 
in the city. The city has over lOO papers and periodicals; i8 public libraries; 
various charitable institutions and schools ; five colleges, three of which are 
literary and two medical; an academy of sciences; and a school of design. 

Of the population att^^acted by the discovery of gold to San Francisco, 
a great number are Irish, German, British, French, and Chinese. The 
Chinese have a church, Roman Catholic, with a Chinese priest educated at 
Rome; and a school. Among the manufactures are flour, woolen goods, 
iron, silk goods, carriages, iron castings, glass, soap, leather, cordage, pianos, 
furniture, billiard tables, wind-mills, willow-ware, sashes, doors, cigars, boots 
and shoes, etc. The Golden Gate Park, west of the city, contains 1,043 acres. 
It is the only public park, and is not yet completed. There are three or four 
public squares in the city, which are planted with trees and shrubs. " China- 
town " is a great curiosity to strangers. It is here that the Chinamen are 
huddled together, and live as though in China. They have Chinese theatres, 
joss-houses, opium-cellars, and gambling-houses. 

The exports are chiefly wheat, barley, wool, quicksilver, hides, furs, flour, 
gunpowder, and copper-ore. The imports include sugar, coal, rice, coffee, 
tea, wines and spirits, iron cotton, silk, and various manufactured goods. 
With the finest harbor on the coast, and a population mainly composed of 
enterprising people from all parts of the world, it is not surprising that the 
city is distinguished by its great accumulation of capital, large financial insti- 
tutions, and great mining operations. On January i. 1880, 889 vessels be- 
longed to the port of entry, of 205,206 tons in aggregate. The exports, con- 
sisting of treasure and merchandise, amount to about $62,000,000 annually. 
Population: i860, 56,000; 1870, 149,000; 1880, 300,000; 1889,320,000; in- 
cluding 25,000 Chinese. Less than one-half are natives of the United States. 



I 




ENCLOSURE SHOWING LIB15Y PRISON WAR MUSEUM, REMOVED FROM Riril.MoMi, VIRCIMA, AM) REBUILT' 
ON WABASH AVENUE, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, IN 1S89. 




PULLMAN BUILDING, SOUTHWEST CORNER MICHIGAN AVENUE AND 

ADAMS STREET. 




CITY OF CHICAGO. 

HICAGO is the principal city of Illinois. It is situated on the 
southwestern shore of Lake Michigan, at the mouth of the Chicago 
-•^11 River; on this site in 1803 a stockade fort was built, and named 
Fort Dearborn; the place was first settled in 1831; in 1832 it contained 
about a dozen families, besides the oflficers and soldiers at Fort Dearborn. 
The town was organized by the election of a board of trustees, August 
10, 1833. On September 26th, of the same year, a treaty was made for all 
their lands with the Pottawattomies, 7,000 of the tribe being present, after 
which they were removed west of the Mississippi River. The first charter of 
the city was passed by the Legislature March 4, 1837. 

Chicago is considered the most remarkable city in the world for its rapid 
growth. When in 1831 the first white settlement was made, it seemed a very 
poor site on which to build a great city; it consisted of muddy flats; the 
harbors were constructed to a great extent by human enterprise and inge- 
nuity; the channel was dredged, the flats filled, and artificial structures 
erected to keep the waves of the lake from overflowing the city; in addition 
to this the grade of the principal portion of the city was eventually raised 
from 6 to 10 feet; as the people of Chicago had suffered much from various 
kinds of fever and sickness, caused by the low, marshy situation, it was found 
necessary to have a thorough system of sewerage, which could only be had 
by raising the city. Immense hotels, large business structures, and blocks of 
heavy buildings were raised by jack-screws, worked by steam power, to the 
required level ; it was one of the most extraordinary and stupendous en- 
gineering experiments ever undertaken in this or any country, but it was 
finally accomplished. The city is now built upon a plain sufficiently elevated 
to prevent inundation, and possesses a splendid harbor equal to the demands 
of its great commerce. The river extends back from the lake nearly three- 
quarters of a mile, at which point two branches intersect it, one from the 
south and the other from the north ; the south branch of the river is con- 
nected by the Illinois and Michigan Canal (which was completed in 1848) with 
the Illinois River at La Salle, making a direct water communication with the 
Mississippi. The canal is 96 miles in length, and was originally 12 feet above 
the lake at its highest level; it is now 8^ feet below the lake; to accomplish 




COUNTY COUET HOUSE AND CITY HALL. 




NEW BOARD OF TRADE BUILDING. 




POST-OFFICE AND CUSTOM HOUSE, CLARK AND ADAMS STREETS. 




UNION STOCK YARDS, NEAR FORTIETH AND HALSTED STREETS. 



ii6 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 



this the city expended in 1866-70 no less than $3,250,000. The river channel 
was also deepened; so that in place of flowing into the lake, its stream flows 
the other way, receiving a fine supply of water from the lake, which carries 
off the sewage of the city at the rate of a mile an hour, and adds increased 



f 




THE ULU PALMER HOUSE. DESTROYED IN THE GREAT FIRE OK 1871. 

facilities for navigation. Magnificent lines of breakwater protect the harbor 
at the mouth of the river, and form large basins for vessels, one of which 
covers about 300 acres. The extent of the city along the lake side is about 
eight miles, and its area is 40 square miles. The streets cross at right angles, 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 117 

and are about 66 to 80 feet wide. The city is well laid out ; the principal 
avenues running parallel with the lake. 

Numerous bridges, and two stone tunnels under the river-bed, connect the 
north, south, and west divisions. The tunnels cost the city about $1,000,000, 
and are the result of great engineering skill; the south division contains most 
of the business and principal buildings of the city. 

The adoption of high license in Chicago has increased the revenue ob- 
tained by the city from saloons from $200,000 to $1,500,000 a year, and has 
reduced the number of saloons from 3,777 to 3,432. The license charge is 
$500. 

Chicago has some very remarkable buildings, among which is the Chamber 
of Commerce, a very elaborate structure, beautifully decorated inside; the 
new County Court-house and City Hall, which occupies a whole block, and 
cost $5,000,000; the United States Custom-house and Post-office, which cost 
over $5,000,000, and occupies an entire block of 342 feet by 210 feet. The Ex- 
position building is of iron and glass, and is a vast structure 800 by 200 feet ; 
its dome is 160 feet high and 60 feet in diameter. Some of the public schools 
are capable of holding 1,000 children, and every child, without distinction, can 
be educated free, and have the advantages of the High-school, which teaches 
the classics and modern languages; the Catholics have schools of their own, 
and there are numerous private academies. Connected with the University 
of Chicago is a law school, the Dearborn Astronomical Observatory, and a 
library of about 25,000 volumes; this is a Baptist institution, and was estab- 
lished through the efforts of Stephen A. Douglas. There are six medical 
colleges, one of which is open to women; four theological seminaries, one 
each — Baptist, Congregational, Lutheran, and Presbyterian ; several commer- 
cial colleges and female seminaries. St. Ignatius College is a very successful 
institution. The Public Library contains over 100,000 volumes; the Academy 
of Sciences has a new museum and library. There are over 300 churches in 
the city, some of which are very fine structures. The famous Libby Prison, 
removed from Richmond in 1889 and rebuilt on Wabash Avenue, is used as a 
museum for war relics and attracts many visitors. The finest parks are Lin- 
coln, Central, Douglas, and Humboldt; six parks contain a total of 2,000 
acres; they are connected by fine drives 250 feet wide and 30 miles long. 

Chicago is probably the greatest railroad centre in the world; about 500 
trains enter and leave daily. Over 30 railroads make this a common centre. 
The Union Passenger Depot, an imposing structure built of Illinois limestone, 



I20 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 



is located on Van Buren Street, flanked on the east by Pacific Avenue, and west 
by Sherman Street. It is 600 feet deep by 172 feet wide (covering an entire 
block), and is about 200 feet high from pavement to extremity of towers. 
Three additional stories were added to the building in 1887, making it six and 
a half stories high. The vast commerce of the entire chain of northern lakes, 
with 3,000 miles of coast line, also centres in this great city. Immense quan- 
tities of iron and copper ore are brought from the shores of Lake Superior. 

Vessels pass from 
Chicago by way of 
the Welland Canal 
around Niagara to 
Montreal, and con- 
nect at that point 
^\ ith steamers for 
Europe. New York 
IS reached by the 
Erie Canal. On the 
banks of the Illinois 




MAIN PAbsENGEK DEPUT AT CHICAGO, ILL. 

and Michigan Canal, about 20 miles from Chicago, are vast quarries of marble 
called Athens marble; it is considered the finest building material in the 
Union. This canal is of great importance, as it is convenient for the coal- 
fields of Illinois, and gives direct communication with the Mississippi, its 
tributaries, and the Gulf of Mexico. 

In October, 1871, a terrible fire occurred, which raged two days and 
nights, burned 18,000 houses, extending over more than 2,000 acres, embrac- 
ing nearly all the business portion of the city and a large number of private 
residences; 200 persons perished, and nearly 100,000 were rendered homeless. 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 121 

The property burned was estimated at $200,000,000; it included the Court- 
house, Custom-house, Post-office, newspaper offices, 10 theatres and halls, 41 
churches, 32 hotels, 3 railroad depots, 5 grain elevators, 8 school-houses, and 
of the banks there was only one left. The insurance recovered was about 
$40,000,000. This stupendous calamity awakened the sympathy of the civil- 
ized world. The city was entirely rebuilt in a style of great magnificence 
within two years. Over $7,000,000 were raised in this country and in Europe 
in aid of the sufferers. 

As a commercial centre Chicago ranks next to New York. It is the most 
extensive lumber market in the world ; its trade in grain and flour is almost 
fabulous; since 1854 it has been the largest grain depot in the world. Pork- 
packing is conducted on a very extensive scale; beef in large quantities is 
killed, packed, and shipped by way of the lakes to Europe. The great cattle 
yards were opened in 1858; they occupy nearly 1,000 acres. There are over 
100 newspapers and periodicals, and it has become a great book-publishing 
centre. Ship-building is conducted to a considerable extent. Among the 
manufactures are watches, leather and leather goods, cotton, agricultural im- 
plements, boots and shoes, iron, flour, high-wines, etc., etc. 

The water supply for the city comes from Lake Michigan, and is con- 
ducted in two brick tunnels, one 7 feet and the other 6 feet in diameter; these 
extend 2 miles under the lake and meet in an immense inclosure, where the 
water descends into them through a grated cylinder; one of these was com- 
pleted in 1866, and the other in 1874. The cost of the tunnels under the lake 
was $1,500,000; the water-works up to the present time cost $10,416,000, 
In addition to this the city has many artesian wells, which yield a large sup- 
ply for the stock-yards and the West Side Park. 

The city has a multitude of benevolent and charitable institutions; in- 
cluding several orphan asylums, dispensaries, homes for the aged, indigent, 
and friendless, etc., etc. The Young Men's Christian Association has been 
very active for the relief of the poor and destitute, and did good service at 
the time of the great fire; as did also the Chicago Relief and Aid Society, 
which distributed the vast amount of money contributed for the sufferers. 

The population in 1835 was 1,000; 1840,4,470; 1850, 28,260; i860, 150,- 
000; 1870, 298,977; 1880, 503,304; 1889, 850,000. 




CITY OF DETROIT. 

Detroit, the chief city of Michigan, the oldest city by far in the 
west of the United States, and older than either Baltimore or 
Philadelphia on the seaboard, was founded by the French of 
Canada in 1670. as an outpost for the prosecution of the fur trade, on the 
right bank of the river of its own name, about 18 miles from Lake Erie and 7 
miles from Lake St. Clair. For more than a century- and a halt, however, the 
ad\-antages of its position were rather prospective than actual. The settle- 
ment of the adjacent wilderness was so slowly carried into effect that Michi- 
gan, of which Detroit was the capital, continued to be a subordinate territor}- 
from 1805 to 1S37. The site is sufficiently elevated above the river to afford 
excellent facilities for drainage, which have been thoroughly improved. The 
ri\'er. which is the dividing line at this point between the L^nited States and 
Canada, is half a mile wide and over 30 feet deep, forming the best harbor on 
the lakes. The city extends 6 or 7 miles along the bank of the river, and 
from 2 to 3 miles back from it. The river front is lined with warehouses, 
mills, foundries, grain ele\-ators, railway stations, shipyards. dr>- docks, etc., 
the signs of an enterprising and thri\-ing community. Fort \Va\Tie. a mile 
below, commands the channel. The site of the city was \-isited by the 
French early in the 17th centurj*. but no permanent settlement was made by 
them until 1701. Sixty-two years later, in 1763. at the close of the war 
between England and France, it fell into the possession of the English. Im- 
mediately after this Pontiac. the great Ottawa chief, made a desperate but 
unsuccessful effort to expel the whites from all that region. In 1778 Detroit 
contained only 300 inhabitants. li\-ing for the most part in log huts. The 
British, in 177S. erected a fort, which, after the Americans gained possession, 
became Fort Shelby. At the peace of 1783. Detroit became a part of the 
United States, but the Americans did not take possession until thirteen years 
later. The place w-as wholly destroyed by fire in 1805, and two years after- 
ward the present cit>- was laid out. In the war of 18 12 it was surrendered by 
General Hull to the British, but recovered by the Americans after the battle 
of Lake Erie in 1813. It was incorporated as a village in 1S15, as a cit>- in 
1824. It was the seat of government of the Territor>- of Michigan from 1S05 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 123 

to 1837, and of the State of Michigan from the latter date till 1847. The 
streets are broad and well paved and lighted ; many of them lined with beau- 
tiful shade trees. The avenues are from 100 to 120 feet wide. Many of the 
business structures are large, solid, and imposing, and there are many elegant 
and costly private residences. The city has had a very rapid growth, the 
population increasing from 770 in 1810, to 116,340 in 1880, and 236/XX) in 
1889. The principal park of Detroit Is the "Grand Circus," and it is the 
centre from which the principal avenues radiate. It is semicircular, and 
divided by Woodward Avenue into two parts, each adorned with a fountain, 
The " Campus Martius " is a plot of ground 600 feet long and 250 feet -wride, 
crossed by two avenues. Facing it is the City Hall, a fine structure of sand- 
stone, 200 feet in length by 90 feet in width, which cost $^xiojooo. In front 
of the City Hall is a monument to the soldiers of Michigan who fell in the 
War of the Rebellion ; and facing the Campus Martius on the north is an 
opera house, a large and fine building. The United States Custom-house 
and Post-office, a large building of stone, is on Griswold Street. The 
largest church edifice is the Roman Catholic Cathedral, but there are 
several of other denominations which are fine specimens of architecture. 
The Roman Catholic Convent of the Sacred Heart is a large and hand- 
some structure. The Michigan Central freight depot is 1,250 feet long and 
102 feet wide — ^a single room, covered by a self-supporting roof of iron; 
and near it stands a grain ele\'ator with cupola, commanding a fine prospect. 
The House of Correction is also a very handsome building, erected at a cost 
of $300,000, with a capacity for 450 inmates- 
There are many lines of steamers with elegant boats running to different 
points on the lakes. Eight great lines of railroad centre here. The large 
foreign commerce of Detroit is 'almost exclusively with the adjoining British 
possessions. The exports mostly consist of wheat, oats, com, hog^ cotton, 
bacon, lumber, lard, etc. The trade in lumber is simply immense. A ver>' 
large trade is done in cattle. There are numerous foundries and blast- 
furnaces, copper-smelting works, locomotive and car works, safe factories, 
furniture establishments, iron-bridge works, brick-yards, flour-mills, tanneries, 
. breweries, distilleries, and tobacco and cigar factories. 

The city is supplied with water from the Detroit River, b>- works valued 
at nearly J1-250/XX). The public-school s>-stem is well organized- The 
Detroit Medical College was established in 1868, and the Homoeopathic Col- 
lege in 1 87 1. There is a fine public librar>', and 65 churches. 



CITY OF ST. LOUIS. 

T LOUIS is the chief city and commercial metropoHs of Missouri. 
It is a port of entry, and is situated on the west bank of the Mis- 
sissippi River, i8o miles above the mouth of the Ohio, and about 
1,200 miles above New Orleans, and 18 miles below the confluence of the 
Missouri. It is connected with East St. Louis, a city in Illinois, by a mag- 
nificent bridge of steel, which cost $10,000,000. The bridge was begun in 
1869 and completed in 1874. It is 2,225 feet long by 54 feet wide. The 





THE COURT-HOUSE,. 



central span is the longest in the world, being 520 feet, and 60 feet above the 
water. The bridge was designed by Captain James B. Eads. 

On the present site of the city was established, in 1734, a trading-post 
with the Indians; it was named after Louis XV. of France. In 1764 it was 
the depot of the Louisiana Indian Trading Company. In 1768 it was taken 
by a detachment of Spanish troops. In 1804 it was purchased by the United 
States with the whole country west of the Mississippi, at which time its pop- 
ulation was 1,500, and its yearly fur trade amounted to over $200,000. In 1820 
its population was less than 5,000. It was chartered as a city in 1822. Its 
first newspaper was started in 1808, and its first bank in 18 16. Cholera ap- 



126 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 



pfif f ' ft (f t f 1 1 



peared in 1832 and again in 1849, from which the city suffered much. The 
first railroad commenced its business in 1853. A large portion of the 
town was destroyed by fire in 1849; after this substantial buildings were 
erected from stone quarried from the bank of the river. St. Louis, under a 
special act of the Legislature, is exempt from county government, and exists 
entirely distinct as a municipality. St. Louis County adjoins the city. The 
latter is regularly built, and has fine streets which cross at right angles, and 
extends about 14 miles along the river. As a commercial and industrial centre 
St. Louis ranks among the most important cities of the Union. It is only 
exceeded by New York and Philadelphia in the number and capital employed 
in its m.anufactures. It is the centre of one of the finest agricultural districts 

^ in this country, for which it 
not only affords an outlet, 
^ but is also a centre of sup- 
1= ply. The Mississippi, with 
J its great tributaries, affords 
, many thousands of miles of 
navigable water, while nearly 
thirty railroads and their nu- 
merous connections, place it 
in communication with all 
parts of the country. All 
these railroads, except one, 
THF. MFKCANTiu, iiMKAKv. ccntrc In thc samc dcpot. In 

the older portions of the city near the river, some of the streets are narrow 
and crooked. The principal streets are Fourth Street, Grand Avenue, Olive 
Street, Main Street, and Second Street. The principal retail stores are on 
Fourth Street, which is the grand promenade. The finest residences are on 
Grand Avenue, Lucas Place, Pine, Locust, and Olive Streets. There are two 
fine boulevards for driving in the western part of the city. It contains nearly 
500 miles of paved streets and alleys. The total area of square miles covered 
by the city is 61^. The numerous public parks, which are very beautiful, 
cover 2,500 acres. In addition to these there are many fine public squares. 
The Fair Grounds contain halls of mechanical and industrial exhibits, a 
zoological garden, claimed to be the most complete in the world, and an 
amphitheatre with seats for 40,000 people. The annual fairs are held in 
October. 








rriiiip'|i 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 



127 



St. Louis has two of the finest cemeteries in the country, beautifully laid' 
out and adorned with trees and shrubbery. It has a vast amount of manu- 
factures, including very extensive flour-mills, sugar refineries, tobacco, whisky,, 
hemp, bale rope and bagging, oils and chemicals, pork, beef, lard, and 
ham. Packing is done on a very extensive scale, and employs an immense 
capital, and is only exceeded by the amount invested in the manufacture of 
iron. The best flour produced in the world is made in St. Louis, and is 
largely shipped to Europe; the production is about 2,500,000 barrels annu- 
ally. The number of hogs packed annually is about 600,000. The cotton 
trade amounts annually 
to about 500,000 bales. 
The machine-shops, lin- 
seed-oil factories, pro- 
vision packing-houses, 
and iron foundries are 
very extensive. The 
annual products of the 
factories are valued at 
nearly $275,000,000. 
The fur trade of Amer- 
ica centres in St. Louis, 
and the traffic in agri- 
cultural produce is sim- 
ply enormous, while in 
the manufacture o f 
flour it stands unrivalled, and competes successfully with the markets of 
Europe; it is also celebrated for its unsurpassable lager. 

Nearly 500 vessels belong to the port, with an aggregate tonnage of nearly 
200,000. There are 30 banks, 35 insurance companies, a chamber of com- 
merce, a merchants' exchange, a mechanics' and manufacturers' exchange, a 
board of trade, a cotton exchange, and a mining exchange. The principal 
public buildings are the City Hall, the new Post-office, and Custom-house, 
which contains the United States Court Rooms, and cost about $5,000,000. 
The Court-house occupies an entire square. The Great Exposition and 
Music Hall, is a building pronounced by all who have seen it to be far supe- 
rior to anything of the kind in this country. Other buildings worthy of note 
are the Masonic Temple, the Columbia Life Insurance building, and the Mer- 




THE NEW POST-OFFICE. 



128 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 



cantile Library, with about 65,000 volumes. About 170 churches, mostly of 
fine architectural appearance, adorn the city. Among the more imposing 
structures are the Roman Catholic Cathedral, Christ Church (Episcopal), and 




HAMKER OF COMMERCE. 



the First Presbyterian Church. The city contains some of the finest hotels 
in the country, among which are the Southern, the Lindell, the Laclede, and 
the old Planters'. A fire in 1877 destroyed the Southern Hotel, \\hich was 




SOUTHERN HOTEL. 



one of the largest and finest in the city. It has been rebuilt, and now occu- 
pies twice the space it first covered. The charitable institutions are very 
numerous, including hospitals, asylums, and homes. The Institution for the 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 



129 



Blind, which is controlled by the State, has facilities for 200 pupils, and 
teaches many industries. The Convent of the Good Shepherd is for the 
reformation of fallen women. There are also the Deaf and Dumb Asylum, 
St. Luke's Hospital, the St. Louis Hospital, the Emigrants' Home, the 
Widows' and Infants' Asylum, and the Insane Asylum. There are 108 public 
school buildings, occupied by over 55,000 children during the day, and 6,000 
pupils at night. The Washington University includes, in addition to the 
college proper, the Polytechnic Institute, the Marcy Institute for the Educa- 
tion of Women, the School of Fine Arts, the Manual Training School, and the 
Law School. The Concordia Institute (which is German Lutheran) includes 
a theological college. The Catholics have over 100 parochial, private, and 
convent schools, among which are the Academies of Loretto, the Visitation, 
and Sacred Heart, the Ursuline Convent, and St. Louis University. The 
latter is under the control of the Society of Jesus, and has a large and valua- 
ble library and museum. Prominent among the other Catholic institutions is 
the College of the Christian Brothers. There are several theatres and places 
of amusement, and a fine opera house. The assessed value of real and per- 
sonal property was (1889) $220,000,000. Population: in 1820, 4,590; i860, 
151,780; 1870,310,864; 1880,350,522; in 1889 was 450,000. 




CITY OF BALTIMORE. 




ALTIMORE is a magnificent city in Maryland. It is situated 20a 
miles from the Atlantic, and is considered one of the three great 
seaports of the East ; the bay is large enough and of a sufificient 
depth to accommodate the largest ships, and the channels in the river have 
been dredged to a depth of 24 feet and a width of nearly 400 feet. The city 
has many advantages, especially in location, as it is situated at the most 
northerly extremity of the Chesapeake Bay, into which numerous rivers flow 

after passing through the fer- 
tile districts of Maryland and 
Virginia. The city was founded 
in 1729. In January, 1730, 
a small town was located 
north of Jones' Falls, and 
named Baltimore, in honor of 
Calvert, Lord Baltimore. At 
the same period William Fell, 
ship-builder, settled at P^ell's 
Point, and two years later an- 
other town was projected and 
named after David Jones. 
The town was joined to Bal- 
timore in 1745, dropping its 
name. By successive unions 
these little settlements passed into Baltimore, and in 1752 the future city 
had about two dozen houses and 200 inhabitants. In 1767 Baltimore was 
made the county seat. In 1773 the first theatre, newspaper, and stage line 
to New York and Philadelphia were established. The city is divided into 
two nearly equal parts by " Jones' Falls," a rapid stream, which, though 
troublesome from its floods, and expensive from its bridges, supplies immense 
water-power, and an abundance of pure water for domestic use. In 1776 the 
Continental Congress met in Baltimore in quarters thus described by John 
Adams : " The congress sit in the last house at the west end of Market Street, 
on the south side of the street, in a long chamber, with two fire-places, two 




15ATTLE MONUMENT, l.Al,l 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 131 

large closets and two doors. The house belongs to a Quaker, who built it for a 
tavern." Though Maryland was originally a Roman Catholic colony, there 
came to Baltimore, after the Revolution, a number of enterprising Scotch- 
Irish Protestants, whose energy and means were of great value to the city. 
In 1789 the course of Jones' Falls was changed, and the original bed filled in. 
In 1792 there was an accession to the population of many refugees from San 
Domingo. By 1796 Baltimore was made a city. Baltimore is defended by Fort 
McHenry. It was during an unsuccessful bombardment of this fort by the 
British fleet, in 1814, that Francis Scott Key, an American prisoner on one of 
the English ships, composed the celebrated " Star-Spangled Banner," Dur- 
ing the Civil War, a portion of the 6th Mass. and 7th Penn. regiments were 
mobbed while passing though the city, and in the contest several citizens and 
soldiers were killed. No more troops were sent through Baltimore until the 
city was put under military rule. Baltimore is on undulating ground, and it has 
more than 200 churches, three universities, and a number of colleges. Among 
the commemorative structures which have gained for Baltimore the name of 
the " Monumental City," the most interesting is an elegant obelisk, erected in 
181 5 to the memory of those who had fallen in defending the town against 
the British. The Roman Catholic Cathedral takes the lead among the ecclesi- 
astical edifices of Baltimore. It is a massive building of granite, being 190 
feet long, 177 broad, and 127 high; and besides one of the largest organs in 
the United States, it contains two beautiful paintings, presented by Louis 
XVI. and Charles X. of France. 

Baltimore's water communications are of great importance; the James 
River affords communication with Richmond, Petersburg, and Lynchburg, 
and the waters of the bay with Norfolk; by canal, with New York and Phil- 
adelphia; by the Potomac River, with Washington; by canal from the latter 
place to Cumberland, the district in which the collieries of the State are 
located. Along these coasts are numerous thriving towns and many well- 
tilled farms, the latter sending to her docks at times over 100,000 bushels of 
grain a day. The city is much nearer to the interior of the country than 
most of the large cities on the Atlantic Coast. Her position at the head of 
the Chesapeake, enables her to convey freight by water, which is a greater 
distance, much cheaper than by other transportation. Her immediate vicin- 
ity to the coal regions enables steamers to get their supply of this article at 
less than half the price they could get it in New York or Boston. Steamers 
crossing the Atlantic can save nearly $2,000 in this way on a single trip, as 



132 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 

they generally use from 800 to 1,000 tons of coal. This probably explains 
why Baltimore is growing in favor as the great outlet of the West as well as 
of the interior, and as a distributing emporium of imports for the same local- 
ities. The vessels belonging to the port number nearly 2,000; tonnage, about 
150,000. About 1,200 foreign ships, 150 foreign ocean steamers, and 400 
American ships, engaged in foreign trade, enter the port annually. There 
are lines to various parts of Europe. The city has 15 national banks, with 
an aggregate capital of nearly $12,000,000. There are also several private 
banks of a substantial character. It is one of the greatest flour markets in 
the world. The trade in oysters is enormous. About 12,000 men are em- 
ployed in packing and handling oysters. One house puts up over 50,000 cans 
of raw oysters daily; and there are nearly 50 large establishments exclusively 
engaged in packing. Another house puts up over 35,000 cans of cooked 
oysters daily. Nearly 100 smaller concerns are engaged in opening oysters. 
After the oysters are all canned each year, the canning of fruits and vegeta- 
bles — which is conducted very extensively — is commenced, of which over 
25,000,000 cans are packed annually and sent to all parts of the civilized 
world, even to Hindostan, China, and Japan. In the coffee trade Baltimore 
is only second to New York, the sales amounting to nearly 500,000 bags 
annually; the bulk of this is imported from Brazil. 

Baltimore is one of the great centres of the coal trade; over 50,000 tons 
are exported annually. There are about 20 mills engaged in the manufacture 
of cotton (shirtings, cotton duck, and sheetings), and it has been estimated 
that 80 per cent, of the cotton duck produced on the globe is made in these 
mills. Nearly 100,000 bales of raw cotton are exported annually. The cattle 
trade of Baltimore is conducted on a very extensive scale, as is also its lum- 
ber trade, about 40 large houses being engaged in the latter industry. The 
export trade in lumber is at the present time nearly five million feet annually, 
while about sixty million feet of yellow pine are used annually for making 
packing-boxes. The city is the nearest seaport to the oil regions, and has 
great facilities for refining petroleum. There are many large refineries. The 
export trade in oil is very large, amounting at times to 50,000,000 gallons 
annually. Baltimore is also prominent in exportmg tobacco. The largest 
iron rolling mills in the United States are the Abbot Works. The city is 
surrounded by iron-ore beds. One railroad iron mill can turn out over 40,000 
tons of finished rails annually. The industry in copper goods is very exten- 
sive, and is considered equal to any on the coast. A very extensive business 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. i33 

is done in marine and stationary steam-engines, mill-gearing, water-wheels, 
pulleys and shafting, hollow ware, stones, iron work, agricultural imple- 
ments, etc. 

Baltimore has gained a great reputation for its preparation of lard, of 
which it exports great quantities. Large quantities of provisions from the 
interior are exported to foreign ports. The shoe and leather trade is of great 
importance, amounting to ov^er $25,000,000 annually. Much of the leather is 
exported to England and Germany. There is also a large trade in sugar and 
molasses. Other industries are: ship-building, woolen goods, pottery, sugar 
refining, distilling, tanning, saddlery, etc. About 10,000,000 bricks are made 
and sold annually, 

Baltimore possesses many charitable and beneficial institutions, among 
which are the Maryland Institution for the Blind ; the Sheppard Asylum, for 
the Insane, endowed with $1,000,000 by Moses Sheppard ; the Peabody Institu- 
tion, which received over $1,000,000 from George Peabody; and the Hopkins 
Hospital, endowed with $2,000,000 by Johns Hopkins. The Johns Hopkins 
University is also magnificently endowed, giving opportunity for post-graduate 
study and advanced scientific research. There are about 125 public schools, 
with TOO,000 average attendance. The finest building in Baltimore is the new 
City Hall, occupying an entire square of more than half an acre, 355 feet 
long, which cost $2,600,000. The Peabody Institute was incorporated in 
1857. It contains a library of 56,000 volumes, and halls for lectures, etc. 
The Custom-house is a fine edifice, 225 by 141 feet. On the four sides are 
colonnades, each column being a single block of Italian marble. The new 
Pratt Library seems to meet a "long-felt want." Thus far about 1,600 books 
a day have been taken out. It comprises 40,000 volumes, distributed from 
one central point and five branches. 

Baltimore is supplied with water from Lake Roland, with a capacity of 
500,000,000 gallons, and by the new system of water works, the grandest in 
the world, 200,000,000 gallons per day; quantity used, 27,000,000 per day. 
The city can boast of the noblest forest park in the United States. " Druid 
Hill" is an old forest which was previously the private park of a fine estate. 
It contains over 600 acres, acquired by the city in i860. It adds much to 
the beauty of the city, and has many picturesque walks and drives. The 
population in 1800 was 25,514; in 1830, 80,620; in 1840, 102,513; in 1850, 
169,547; in 1870, 267,354; in 1880, 332,190; i" 1889,416,805. 



CITY OF LOUISVILLE. 




OUISVILLE, the chief city of Kentucky, is situated on the Ohio 
River, 130 miles below Cincinnati. On account of rapids in the 
river, which here has a fall of 27 feet and affords an excellent water 
power, it is known as the " Falls City." Steamers handled by skilled pilots 
pass through the rapids at high water, but at other times pass through an 
extensive canal which is being widened to accommodate increasing trafific. 

Louisville is often called the city of homes. Population increased from 
123,645 in 1880 to 200,000 in 1889. Among the many fine structures for 




A SCKNE UN THE RIVER rRONT AFTER THE WAR. 

which the city is noted are the custom house, city and county buildings, 
Commercial Club building, the public library building of Kentucky, and the 
Masonic Widows' and Orphans' Home. It also contains many hospitals, 
asylums, educational institutions, and about 125 churches. The Cave Hill 
Cemetery, lying back of the city, is one of the most beautiful burial places 
in the West. 

Louisville is the largest market in the world Tor leaf tobacco and for 
whiskey, and is also a great centre of the pork-packing industry. Among the 
important manufactures are agricultural implements, leather, cement, iron 
piping, and furniture. A number of railroads connect the city with the great 
Northern and Southern railroad systems. The death rate per thousand in- 
habitants is less than that of any other city of its size in the Union. 



CITY OF CLEVELAND. 




LEVELAND, next to Cincinnati, is the most commercial city in 
Ohio, and the capital of Cuyahoga County. It is situated on the 
southern shore of Lake Erie, at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River. 
The harbor is one of the best on the coast, and has been rendered still more 
available by extending a pier on either side into deeper water. By means of 
this secure and commodious haven, Cleveland, with the aid of artificial works 
in both directions, has navigable communications with the Atlantic Ocean on 
the one hand, 
and with the 
head of Lake 
Superior o n 
the other. It 
is celebrated 
for its ship- 
building, and 
is becoming 
rapidly more 
and more im- 
portant for its 
manufactures. 

Magnificent ' '' ^■''™- ^^'^^'^ '='^'™ ''"^ ™- 

works were erected at a cost of about $800,000, to supply the city with water 
from Lake Erie; this is obtained by means of a tunnel under the lake. The 
city has grown to its present dimensions from a small town, which was settled 
in 1796 by General Moses Cleaveland, one of the directors of the Connecticut 
Land Company, after whom it was named. It is the chief port of the " Western 
Reserve." It is divided into two parts, connected with each other by bridges 
crossing the Cuyahoga River, which here empties into the lake. One of the 
bridges is 2,000 feet in length, and built of solid masonry, costing $2,500,000. 
The principal public buildings are of stone, and present a fine appear- 
ance. The United States building contains the Custom-house, Post-ofifice, 
and rooms for the Federal Courts. The County Court-house and City Hall 
occupy conspicuous places, and are well adapted to their several uses. The 




136 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

House of Correction cost $170,000. The Cleveland Medical College is an 
imposing structure. The Union Railway Station is a massive structure of 
stone. The high-schools and several of the churches are very handsome 
structures. There is also a public library, and several other libraries. There 
are numerous hospitals, orphan asylums, and other charitable institutions, 
besides two convents, a Young Men's Christian Association, a seminary for 
women and a business college. The Catholic people have 11 academies and 
schools. The public schools are numerous and well organized. The State 
Law College has a fine library and many students. The Cleveland Medical 
College w^as founded in 1843, and the Homoeopathic Medical College in 1849. 

Cleveland has over 160 churches, many large insurance companies, several 
fine markets, and t,^ hotels. It is the centre of many great railroads, and the 
Ohio Canal connects Lake Erie at this point with the Ohio River. It v.as 
this canal, completed in 1834, that first gave a great impetus to the commerce 
of the city. Numerous steamers ply between Cleveland and all other ports 
on the lake. The manufacturing industries of the city are varied and exten- 
sive, and increasing with great rapidity. They embrace iron, coal, refined 
petroleum, nail manufactories, copper smelting, sulphuric acid, wooden ware, 
agricultural implements, sewing-machines, railroad cars, marble, white lead, 
etc. The population was in 1830, 1,000; 1850, 17,034; 1870,93,018; 1880, 
159,404; 1886, 227,000; 1889, 250,000. 

The city is lighted by electric lights, which are elevated to a great height. 
There are many beautiful cemeteries. The finest part of the city is on a 
sandy bluff on the east side of the river, from 60 to 150 feet above the lake. 
The city is laid out mostly in squares, the principal streets being from 80 to 
120 feet wide, and one having a width of 132 feet. Shade trees are so abun- 
dant that the place is properly called the " Forest City." Euclid Avenue^ 
lined with elegant private residences, each of which is surrounded with ample 
grounds, is acknowledged to be the handsomest street in the country. 
Superior Street, having a width of 132 feet, is occupied by the banks and the 
principal retail stores. Monumental Park, in the centre of the city, with an 
area of ten acres, as originally laid out, is now crossed by streets at right 
angles, and so divided into four smaller squares, beautifully shaded and care- 
fully kept. In one of these squares is a handsome fountain, in another a pool 
and a cascade, and a statue of Commodore Perry, the hero of the battle of 
Lake Erie, erected in i860 at a cost of $8,000. West of the river is another 
finely shaded park called the " Circle," with a beautiful fountain in the centre. 



CITY OF INDIANAPOLIS. 




NDIANAPOLIS, the capital and largest city of Indiana, is built on- 
the west fork of White River, near the centre of the State, lOO- 
miles northwest of Cincinnati. It is situated in the vicinity of an 
extensive coal region. Its manufactures and commerce are very important 
and extensive. Thirteen lines of railroad connect the city with all parts of 
the country. It is a regularly built and beautiful city, with a handsome State- 
house, court-house, jail, and State asylums for the blind, deaf and dumb, and 
insane ; has a university, two female colleges, and eight banks. 

Indianapolis became the seat of government in 1820, and in 1824 became 
the capital of the State. The city was incorporated in 1836. The streets are 
broad, and run at right angles. Nine bridges cross the river, three of which 
are for railroads. There are numerous street railroads, including a belt-line 
around the city. Seven parks, one of which contains over 100 acres, add 
much to the beauty of the city. 

Pork-packing is carried on extensively. There are a number of large flour- 
mills, grain elevators, iron rolling-mills, foundries, machine-shops, car works, 
sewing-machine shops, and factories for the manufacture of agricultural im- 
plements, furniture, pianos, organs, carriages, cotton and woolen goods, etc., 
etc. There are nearly 50 incorporated manufacturing institutions, with a 
large aggregate capital. About 90 churches adorn the city ; also a Roman 
Catholic theological seminary, an art school, a city hospital, an academy of 
music, a State library with 25,000 volumes, and a free city library with about 
20,000 volumes. The new State House cost $2,000,000. The public schools 
are mainly supported by the State school fund of $8,000,000. The Court- 
house is a splendid structure. Among the other fine buildings may be men- 
tioned the Exposition Building, the Chamber of Commerce, the Union Depot, 
the Masonic and Odd Fellow^s' Halls, the United States Arsenal, and numer- 
ous fine, massive blocks of buildings. The best private residences are sur- 
rounded by fine lawns and gardens. This city was the home of the late 
Vice-President Hendricks. 

Indiana has no mountains, and over two-thirds of its surface is level or undu- 
lating. It has but one port, Michigan City, on Lake Michigan, and no direct for- 
eign commerce. Its internal trade is of vast extent, its rivers, canals, and rail- 
roads being numerous and of great importance. The population of Indian- 
apolis in 1840 was 2,692; in 1870, 48,244; in 1880, 76,200; and in 1889 125,000. 






CITY OF CINCINNATI. 




rflNCINNATI is ilie chief commercial city of Ohio; it is situated on 
the north or right bank of the Ohio River, 120 miles from Colum- 
bus, the capital of the State; 45S miles below Pittsburgh, where 
the Ohio is formed by the junction of the Monongahela and Alleghany 
Rivers, and 500 miles above the junction of the Ohio and the Mississippi 
Rivers. It is 340 miles east of St. Louis, 280 miles southeast of Chicago, and 
610 miles from Washington. On the opposite side of the Ohio, in Kentucky, 
are two cities — Covington, which is the most important, has a population of 
28,542; and Newport with a population of 18,412. Cincinnati, which is the 
county seat of Hamilton County, has communications by numerous steam 
ferries besides two bridges, with these cities. The city occupies 27 square 
miles, and extends along the river 10 miles, and is about 3 miles wide. It has 
a fine, substantial appearance, and is noted for the architectural beauty of its 
public buildings. Its fine broad streets and avenues remind one of Phila- 
delphia; they are well paved, and in some instances lined with shade trees. 
The principal part of the city lies between Deer Creek on the east and Mill 
Creek on the west, which are nearly three miles apart where they flow into the 
Ohio. A few settlers from New Jersey first located on this site in 1789. In 
1800 the population only amounted to 750; its development being greatly 
retarded by the Indians, who rendered navigation on the Ohio very dangerous. 
Its ecclesiastical, literary and commercial edifices are as numerous as 
befits the acknowledged Queen of the West. The city occupies chiefly two 
terraces, which are elevated respectively 50 and 108 feet above the level of 
the river. The water of the Ohio has been lifted up into an immense reser- 
voir, at an expense of about $1,800,000. A large suspension bridge, 100 feet 
above low water, connects the city with Covington, Ky. Its entire length is 
2,252 feet; the principal span is 1,057 feet; this was designed by John A. 
Roebling, and cost nearly $2,000,000; it was completed in 1867. Another 
bridge connects the city with Newport, Ky. 

Cincinnati is the centre of a great network of railroads, and is connected 
with a vast region of territory by the Ohio and Mississippi and their connec- 
tions : while the Miami Canal connects it with Lake Erie, and a branch con- 
nects the Miami with the Wabash and Erie Canal, which is the longest canal 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 139 

in the Union (374 miles); this canal extends from Toledo to Evansville, Ind., 
on the Ohio River. 

The city was incorporated in 18 14, and since that time has made steady 
progress. Thirteen companies ««e seven railroads, which enter the city; two 
others have their terminus at Covington, on tlie ^l%e<- ^de of the river. 
Nearly 400 passenger and freight trains arrive and leave daily. There are 
four depots near the river in different parts of the city. Nearly twenty lines 



THIRD STREET. 



of street railroads cross the city in all directions. An incline steam-passenger 
railway affords communication with the top of the adjacent hills. Vineyards 
and gardens abound in the suburbs. 

Previous to and during the Civil War the slavery question created intense 
excitement. Social and vast commercial relations of the city with the South 
brought it in sympathy with the Slave States. Several attempts were made 
to establish an anti-slavery paper in the city, but without success, as it was 
always destroyed by a mob, who were sustained by prominent citizens; and 



HO GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 

in 1862, when a Confederate force was expected to attack the city, it was 
found necessary to place it under martial law. Many of the leading families 
furnished men and money for the Southern cause; but the great masses of 
the people, especially the Germans, were patriotic, and identified themselves 
with the Union cause. 

In the suburbs of the city are many fine, costly residences, surrounded 
with beautiful lawns, laid out with shrubs and trees. The scenery in the 
vicinity of the city is very attractive ; there are numerous parks and public 
grounds. Among the public buildings are the United States Government 
building, containing the Custom-house, Post-of^ce, Court-rooms, etc. The 
County Court-house cost nearly $500,000, and with the County Jail occupies 
an entire square. The City Hospital occupies a square, containing nearly four 
acres; the buildings and land are valued at $1,000,000. The Public Library 
cost about $700,000, which was raised by taxation. Pike's Opera House is a 
very imposing edifice, 134 by 170 feet. The Masonic Temple is 195 by lOO 
feet, and 4 stories high. Mozart's Hall has seating accommodations for 3,000 
people. Longview Asylum for the Insane, situated outside of the city, is 612 
feet long; the property is valued at over $1,000,000. There are also St. 
Xavier's College, which is governed by the Jesuits; Lane Theological Semi- 
nary (Presbyterian), organized in 1829, with an endowment of $200,000. The 
Catholics support over 100 parochial schools. There are in all 6 medical 
colleges, 5 literary colleges, one college of dentistry, several commercial col- 
leges, a university, and a law school. In 1842 the Wesleyan College for 
women was founded. There are nearly 200 churches ; the finest of which is 
St. Peter's Cathedral (Catholic); it is 180 by 90 feet, with a fine stone spire 
224 feet high. The Tyler-Davidson Fountain is a fine work of art ; it cost 
$200,000, and was presented to the city in 1871, 

Wine is made in the neighborhood to a great extent. The city itself also 
is largely engaged in a variety of important manufactures, hundreds of steam- 
engines being employed in the different establishments. The manufactories 
include iron-foundries, rolling-mills, lard, oil, and stearine factories; and 
countless works connected with flour, clothing, furniture, paper, printing, 
tobacco, soap, candles, hats, etc. The total value of manufactured goods in 
one year amounted to nearly $170,000,000. The Board of Trade has nearly 
1,000 members. The Merchants' Exchange and Chamber of Commerce has 
about 1,200 members. Six National banks have a capital of nearly $5,000,000, 
and 17 other banks nearly $3,000,000. An annual Industrial Exhibition has 



^ 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 



141 



been held in Cincinnati in the fall of each year since 1871 ; the buildings 
occupy 3>^ acres of ground. 

A canal completed in 1872 around the falls of the Ohio, at Louisville, en- 
ables the largest steamboats on the Mississippi to reach Cincinnati. The 
imports in one year amounted to $223,237,157, and exports $186,209,646. By 
act of Congress in 1870, foreign merchandise may arrive in Cincinnati without 
appraisement or payment of duties at any port where it may first arrive. 




FOURTH STREET. 



At one time Cincinnati was the great centre in the United States for the 
pork trade, but since 1863 Chicago has held f^rst rank. At the present time 
Cincinnati has about 60 establishments for the slaughtering of swine and the 
packing of pork; the yards for the reception of live hogs occupy about 60 
acres. In one year 793,863 hogs, 142,815 cattle, and 274,027 sheep were re- 
ceived. 

The celebrated lager-beer of Cincinnati has gained a reputation, not only 
in the United States, but abroad. The malt liquors manufactured in one 



142 



GRKAT CITIKS Ol- 11 IK UNITED STATES. 



)-car aiiKHintccl to nc.irl)- 6,000,000 barrels, which consiinicil about 1,500,000 
busluls iti malt, 1.J50.000 pomuls of hoi)s, 700,000 pouiuls of rice, over 6,ooo,- 
000 bushels of coal, tiver 3,500,000 bushels of coke, and used up 60,000 tons 
of ice. Whisky is made (M1 a ver\' extensive scale; the returns of rectified 
spirits for one year amount to nearl)- 13,000,000 ijjallons. 

Tin- tobacco .md cii^ar trade is of threat extent and \alue. In one }'ear 
the sales of tobacco amounted to o\er 4C^,000 hot:jsheads; and the number of 
cigars made in Cincinnati, Covington, and Newport was over 100,000,000. 
Nearly 2,000,000 cit;arettes were made in the same year; and the produc- 
tion of fine-cut (chewino) and jilui;- tobacco was nearly 5,000,000 pounds; 
while the smokini; tob.icco amounteil to oxer J.cx^o,ooo pounds. 

I'ini- cauilles are m.uk- in (."incinnati. and are l.ui^el)' disposed of in foreii^n 
countries; the shiimients for one }'ear were nearly 250,000 boxes. The manu- 
facture o{ soap is \er\' extensive; the total shipments in one year amountetl 
to i>\er 366,000 bc^xes. It was here that soap made from cotton-seed oil was 
first manutactuit-d. The manufacture of starch has <;aineil for the city a 
i;reat reputation; tlu" shipments ft>r one )-ear anunmted to nearh' 5.000,000 
boxes; it is sold not only in the ITniteil States, but in nearly all parts of the 
world, including Mexict^ ami South America. Furniture forms an important 
part of the manufactures. Tlu' manufacture of boots and shoes is constantly 
increasing;, ami the jobbini; traile in this line is \'er\' exti'usix'e; the shipments 
in one )ear amounted to abmit KX>,000 cases. 

Cincinnati is one of the ijjreat jj^rain warehouses for the South ; the receipts 
for one year amounted to about I2,CX)0,000 bushels. Boat-building-, including 
steamboats and ferry-boats, gjives employment to a laroe number of workmen. 

The popul.ititMi in 1 S20 was 9,602 : in 1840,46,338; in i85c\ 115,438; in 
i860, 161,000; in 1870. 216.289; in 1880, 255,708; in 1889, 330,000. 




CITY OF MILWAUKEE. 



jW||ILWAUKEK is the most important city and port of entry of Wis- 
consin. It is situated on the western shore of Lake Michigan, at 
^l| the mouth of the Milwaukee River, which enters the hike from the 
north, and flows through the city. The Menomonee River joins the Milwau- 
kee near its mouth. The bay is 6 miles lon^ by 3 miles wide. The city is 
84 miles north by west of Chicago, and 87 miles east of Madison, which is the 
capital of the State. The harbor is one of the best on the lakes, and has 
been much improved by the Government. The city is very handsome, and 
is built of yellow or 
cream-colored 
bricks made in the 
vicinity, and from 
which it has derived 
the name of the 
" Cream City of the 
Lakes." The streets 
are regular, the cen- 
tre and most level 
parts of the city be- 
ing devoted to busi- 
ness. The residen- 
ces crown a high 
h\ufi, and give the 
city a very picturesque appearance when viewed from the lake. Its first 
white settler was a Frenchman, whose name was Juneau, who located there 
in 1818, and engaged in the fur trade, and finally became Mayor of the city, 
which was incorporated in 1846. The city has a fine sewerage system, and is 
furnished by the lake with water. 

It is connected with all parts of the country by railroads. In 1870, Mil- 
waukee claimed the rank of fourth city in the Union in marine commerce. 
This position it has since lost by the rapid and extraordinary development of 
other cities. Copper and iron mines within 50 miles of the city have done 
much towards making her a great manufacturing centre. 




MILWALKEK IN 1860. 



144 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

/ 

Among the fine public buildings are the Post-office and Custom-house, 
which is built with marble, and in which are the United States Courts. The 
County Court-house was erected at a cost of more than $400,000. The re- 
ceipts and shipments by rail and water are immense and of great value. The 
most important items of merchandise are wheat and flour. The immense 
agricultural products of the three great States of Wisconsin, Iowa, and Min- 
nesota are shipped from its port. Pork-packing is conducted on a very 
extensive scale, and the city is celebrated for its lager-beer, which finds a 
market in nearly all parts of the Union. About $4,000,000 is invested in this 
branch of industry. 

There are vast iron and rolling mills, which employ nearly 3,000 men, and 
have a capital of nearly $5,000,000. There are six immense elevators, with a 
total capacity of nearly 6,000,000 bushels, one of which is claimed to be the 
largest in the Union, having a capacity of 1,500,000 bushels. One of the 
largest flour-mills has a daily capacity of 1,000 barrels. The leather factories 
are very extensive, the total capital being nearly $2,000,000. Among the 
goods manufactured are the following: agricultural implements, machinery, 
pig-iron, iron castings, steam-boilers, car wheels, woolen cloth, carriages, 
wagons, barrels, furniture, sashes and blinds, boots and shoes, tobacco and 
cigars, white lead, paper, soap and candles, iron castings, leather, malt, high- 
wines, brooms, etc. 

It has a large number of educational institutions, comprising academies, 
public and private schools, and an Industrial School, several orphan asylums 
and hospitals, a College for Women, a monastery and Franciscan College, a 
public art gallery, a public library, and a German library and public museum. 
There are 75 churches, 2 cathedrals (i Episcopal and i Catholic), about 20 
banks, several insurance companies and theatres. The Government asylum 
for invalid soldiers is situated two or three miles from the city. 

The population, which largely consists of Germans and other nationalities, 
was, in i860, 45,000; in 1870, 71,000; in 1880, 115,570; and in 1889, 210,000. 



CITY OF PITTSBURGH 






ITTSBURGH isthe second 

city in population and 

importance in Pennsyl- 
vania, a port of entry, and the 
county seat of Allegheny County. 
It is situated at the junction of the 
Monongahela and Alleghany Rivers, "fj^^ 
where they form the Ohio, which at ''^- 
this point is a quarter of a mile wide. 
The city is 356 miles from Phila- 
delphia, 245 miles from Harris- 
burgh, which is the capital of the horseshoe curve and Pittsburgh, penn. 
State, and 227 miles from Washington. The distance from New Orleans 
by the river is 2,040 miles. Some of the richest deposits of coal and iron 
in America are to be found in the vicinity. The city has nearly 200 iron 
establishments, about 75 iron foundries, 50 iron and steel works, and over 600 



146 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 



furnaces. There are vast machine-shops ; the manufacture of steam boilers, 
engines, etc., is very extensive. There are about 56 glass manufacturing 
establishments, the products of which are about $12,000,000 annually. The 
trade in crude and refined oil is enormous ; nearly 3,000,000 barrels of crude 
oil are received annually, and about 2,500,000 barrels of refined oil shipped. 
Large quantities of coke are purchased, averaging more than 1,000,000 tons 
a year. The iron manufactures amount annually to about $50,000,000: the 
total amount of pig metal consumed is about 7,000,000 tons annually, being 
nearly one-quarter of the total produced in the Union. There are large 
copper-smelting works, 22 rolling-mills, numerous cotton-mills and white lead 

;^ factories. The best qualities of English 
steel are surpassed by several large steel 
works, seven of which produce about 35,- 
000 tons annually. The products of sev- 
eral copper manufacturing establishments 
amount to §4,000,000 annually. Vast 
quantities of coal are produced in nearly 
200 collieries in the neighborhood of the 
city. 

Pittsburgh is the great manufacturing 
city of America. The immense foundries 
and factories fill the air with smoke, and 
hence it has derived the names of " the 
Smoky City," and " the Iron City." It 
has often been compared to Birmingham, 
n , "."K"v"H^''"'"T'r''-'.T""°' England. The first glass manufactured 

JJestroyed by i- ire during the Riots of 1877. ° ° 

in Pittsburgh was in 1796. The first attempt at making steel was in 1828, 
and for several years only the lowest grade was produced. The manufac- 
ture of cast steel for edge-tools was commenced in i860. The first rolling- 
mill was built in 18 12, and the first iron foundry in 1804; from the latter 
cannon were cast and supplied for the fleet on Lake Erie and for the defence 
of New Orleans. 

Pittsburgh occupies the site of the old French Fort Duquesne. In 1754 a 
portion of its present territory was occupied by the English, and a stockade 
fort was built at the confluence of the rivers. After many struggles with the 
French and Indians, in which the British General Braddock was defeated, it 
was finally taken by General Forbes in 1758, and a permanent foothold estab- 




THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 



147 



lished- The place became a permanent trading-post in 1759. A new fort 
was eventually erected, and named Fort Pitt, in honor of William Pitt, then 
Prime Minister of England, the name changing finally to Pittsburgh. In 
1774 the place was surveyed and laid out by descendants of William Penn, 
It was incorporated as a city in 18 16. At that time its limits were confined 
to a peninsula between the rivers; it now extends over the adjoining hills, 
and seven or eight miles up both rivers. In 1845 it was nearly destroyed by 
fire. Its appearance is that of a solid and substantial city. The eastern part 
is devoted to fine residences. Most of the streets are paved. Besides its 
vast manufacturing interests, Pittsburgh has a great traffic over the three 
rivers, which give it an out- 
let to the Mississippi River, 
its tributaries, and the Gulf 
coast, while canals connect it 
with Philadelphia, and, by 
way of Cleveland, with the 
lakes. It is a port of delivery 
in the New Orleans district. 

Among the principal rail- 
roads are the Pennsylvania, 
the Alleghany Valley, and the 
Pittsburgh, Washington, and 
Baltimore, which connect 
Pittsburgh with nearly every 
part of Pennsylvania and the 

East. The Pittsburgh, Fort TJIE old COURT-HOUSK. Destroyed by nre in 1SS4. 

Wayne, and Chicago Railroad and connecting lines give communication to 
the West and Northwest, while the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and St. Louis Rail- 
road connects the South and Southwest. 

The public buildings include a fine Court-house, the Western State Peni- 
tentiary, the United States Arsenal, etc. There are 50 banks and a large 
number of insurance companies; 75 schools, including a high-school. Among 
the colleges are the Western University of Pennsylvania and the Pittsburgh 
Female College (Methodist). There are over 40 newspapers, of which 10 
are dailies; and 120 churches. Among the ecclesiastical buildings is a fine 
large Roman Catholic Cathedral. 

Seven bridges span the Alleghany River, and not only connect Pittsburgh 




148 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

with Alleghany City, but are practically continuous streets traversed by horse- 
cars. Five bridges span the Monongahela, and give an outlet to the suburbs of 
Pittsburgh in that direction. Large steamboats run on the Ohio from Pitts- 
burgh to Cincinnati and many other points, and great facilities are afforded 
for the reception of mineral oil, iron, coal, lumber, etc., by the Monongahela 
and Alleghany Rivers. Over 200 large steamers belong to the port, and 600 
or 700 barges, with a total tonnage of nearly 200,000. 

The fio-ures showing the production of pig-iron indicate that the Southern 
States are forging to the front, although Pennsylvania still holds an easy lead, 
having produced in 1885, 2,445,496 tons of the entire 4,529,869 tons produced 
in this country. Ohio comes next in the list of iron-producing States with 
553,963 tons; Illinois third with 327,977 tons; and Alabama fourth with 227,- 
438 tons. The next highest producing States are Virginia, Tennessee, New 
York, and Michigan, in the order named. While recognizing that the South 
is making rapid advances, Pennsylvania, with its abundant coal and its newly 
utilized store of natural gas, is sure, however, to be the great pig-iron centre 
for an indefinite period. The fuel and ore and the market are so conveniently 
near each other in the Keystone State that no probable competitors are 
seriously to be feared. 

Pittsburgh has rapidly increased in population and manufactures. The 
majority of the population is of foreign birth ; mostly Irish, German, and 
English. The population in 1788 was 480; in 1800, 1,560; in 1840, 21,000; in 
i860, 79,000; in 1870, 121,799; '" 1880, 156,389 (the annexation of adjoining 
boroughs caused much of this increase); in 1889, 230,000. The City of Alle- 
ghany, with its population of 110,000 in 1889, is on the other side of the river, 
and as it is in fact a portion of Pittsburgh, except in its municipal govern- 
ment, it should be added to these figures, making the total population of 
Pittsburgh in 1889, 340,000. 




CITY OF ST. PAUL. 




T. PAUL is the capital of Minnesota. It is a thriving commercial 
city and port of entry, situated on both banks of the Mississippi 
River, 9 miles east of Minneapolis, 400 miles northwest of Chicago, 
2,080 miles from New Orleans, and 9 miles from the Falls of St. Anthony.' 
Excellent springs of water abound in the hills near the city. It is the head 
of navigation for the large steamboats of the Lower Mississippi and its tribu- 
taries, and is 800 feet above the Gulf of Mexico. The City of St. Paul, stand- 
ing at the navigable head of what the Indians fitly called, in their musical and 




A VIEW OF ST. PAUL. 



expressive tongue, the "Great River," has been fortunate in many things. 
Above them all, it is supremely fortunate in situation. A visitor needs only 
to go to the summit of either of the four principal bluffs upon which the city 
lies, and beyond which it is spreading itself so rapidly, to see the secret of 
that spell which its scenery and distant outlook communicate. EstabHshed 
m the midst of a territory dominated by prairies, it looks down upon a vast 
and beautiful landscape in a way that suggests the supremacy and lordliness 
of Rome. Its vistas are various from these lofty coigns of vantage, and each 
is a separate and individual picture. In 1846 the white people living on this 



I50 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 

site consisted of ten persons. In 1841 a chapel was dedicated here to St. 
Paul by a Jesuit missionary, and from this it derived its name. The princi- 
pal railroads are the Northern Pacific; St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Manitoba; 
Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul; Chicago, Burlington, and Northern; 
Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Omaha; St. Paul and Duluth; St. Paul 
and Northern Pacific; Wisconsin Central; Minneapolis and St. Louis; Chi- 
cago and Northwestern; and Minnesota and Northwestern. 

The Custom-house and Post-ofifice is a fine granite structure, which cost 
$600,000. The State Capitol was erected at a cost of $374,000. St. Paul has 
a fine court-house, several hotels and theatres, public libraries, with nearly 
50,000 volumes, a number of daily and weekly newpapers, several of which 
are in the Swedish and German languages. It has a State Historical Society, 
an Academy of Natural Sciences, a State Reform School, various fine public 
schools, orphan asylums. Catholic parochial schools, a commercial and busi- 
ness college, a Home for the Friendless, and Magdalen reformatories, about 
50 churches, and a fine cathedral. The city has very efficient fire and police 
departments, street railways, a Mayor and Council. It is connected with 
West St. Paul by two bridges across the Mississippi River. The boundaries 
of the city include West St. Paul since 1874. There are quarries in the 
vicinity from which limestone is taken for building purposes. Its water sup- 
ply is derived from Lake Phalen, which is about three miles from the city. 
The public park, which is very beautiful, is on the shore of Lake Como, and 
contains nearly 300 acres. It has several grain elevators, numerous banks 
and insurance companies. The shipments of wheat amount to about 2,000,000 
bushels annually, and flour 250,000 barrels. The manufactures consist of 
agricultural implements, machinery, furniture, ale and beer, carriages, boots 
and shoes, lumber, sash and blinds, doors, and blank books. 

Six of the National banks have a capital of $6,350,000. It' is the centre 
of a large growing trade in flour, lumber, furs, machinery, etc., and has a very 
extensive wholesale trade. The growth of the city, like its twin sister, Min- 
neapolis, has been very rapid. The banking capital of St. Paul exceeds that 
of all the rest of the State put together. 

As a place of residence St. Paul is delightfully situated, and on a clear, 
bright day in spring, the view from the bridge*s which span the river is sur- 
passingly beautiful. Up the river as far as the eye can reach, are green 
banks, with hills and plateaus crowned with fine residences and comfortable 
homes. The atmosphere of St. Paul is dry and pure, and remarkably invig- 



y 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 



151 



orating, especially for those in poor health, or suffering from some pulmonary 
complaint. Though the thermometer shows a greater degree of cold in 
winter than is experienced in the New England or Atlantic States, yet it is 
not nearly as perceptible as in other sections where the " raw," damp days of 
winter penetrate through the thickest clothing. The average mean tempera- 
ture for the nine years, including 1883, in the city, was 19° Fahrenheit for the 
winter months; for the summer months, 69° 80'; and for the spring and fall 
months, 40° 30' and 45° 70' respectively. 

Population: in i860, 10,000; in iS/Q, 20,000; in 1880,41,000; and in 1889, 
200,000. 




CONVENIENCES OF MODERN TRAVEL— A PALACE-CAR SMOKER OF TO-DAY. 



i«l 



■III 




CITY OF MINNEAPOLIS. 




INNEAPOLIS is a city in Southeastern Minnesota, on the Missis, 
sippi River, situated at the Falls of St. Anthony, nine miles west 
of St. Paul. The surrounding country is noted for its picturesque 
beauty. The city is built on a fine broad plateau, seemingly specially de- 
signed by nature for a metropolis. The river makes a fall or descent of 50 
feet within a mile, has a perpendicular descent of 18 feet, and has 135,000 
horse-power at low-water mark. It is crossed by a fine suspension bridge 
built in 1876, and three other bridges. There are four fine lakes in the 
vicinity. Immense manufacturing establishments are conducted by means 
of water-power from the 
river. The value of the lum- 
ber sawed in one year 
amounted to $3,000,000, and ,^| 
the flour made in one year 
amounted to nearly $8,000,- 
000. The wholesale grocery 
business amounts to nearly 
$6,000,000 a year. An im- 
mense amount of grain is 
milled. Among the other 
important manufactures are 
iron, machinery, water- a glimpse of Minneapolis, minn. 

wheels, engines and boilers, agricultural implements, cotton and woolen 
goods, furniture, barrels, boots and shoes, paper, linseed oil, beer, sashes, 
doors, and blinds. Pork-packing is conducted on a very extensive scale; 
and there are numerous saw-mills. The wholesale trade is very important, 
and is constantly increasing. Minneapolis is regularly laid out with streets 
and avenues from 60 to 100 feet wide. The streets cross at right angles, 
and are shaded with fine trees. The city is ornamented by a series of beau- 
tiful parks, boulevards, and parkways, laid out and improved at an enor- 
mous expense. It is well sewered, and has a fine fire department and police 
force. Minneapolis is the great railroad centre of the Northwest. All the 




154 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 

roads of the Northwest, in fact, touch Minneapolis. It has a Hne of steamers 
to St. Cloud. 

Among the public buildings are a Court-house, a City Hall erected in 1873, 



1 




an Academy 
e r a-house. 
The Athe- 
of I 5 ,000 
lis is the seat 
M innesota 
organized in 
library of 
the Augs- x^:^ 
Seminary, 
Scandinavians of 
library of 1,800 vol- 
University(Method- 
nevvspapers. The Falls 




of Music, and an Op- 
There are 70 churches, 
naeum has a library 
volumes. Minneapo- 
of the University of 
(open to both sexes), 
1868, and having a 
18,000 volumes; and 
burg Theological 
established by the 
the Northwest, with a 



limes; also Hamline 
^^^^" ist). It has numerous 
"V./rv;:^. "^"^^ of Minnehaha are 

three miles distant, falls ok minnehaha and cai'eTis- Considerable interest 
attaches to this cas- appointment, Minneapolis. cade, it being the scene 

of a legendary romance wrought into the story of Longfellow's poem of 
" Hiawatha." The Minnehaha River flows over a limestone cliff, making a 
sudden descent of 60 feet, and the story runs that Minnehaha, an Indian 
maiden crossed in love, here took the fatal leap. 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. i55 

Minnehaha, in Dakota language, signifies " laughing water." 
The twin cities are at once rivals and neighbors, and may at some future 
period be consolidated into one metropolis. The census of Minnesota was 
taken in 1885; according to it St. Paul had grown from a population of 3 in 
1838, to 1 1 1,397 in 1885 ; and Minneapolis from 45 in 1845, to 129,200 in 1885 ; 
while in 1889 the population of Minneapolis was 247,000 

During the three years 1883, 1884, and 1885, there was expended in new 
buildings in these two cities $52,300,000, in addition to a large sum in public 
improvements; and it may be safely af^rmed that so great a sum thus ex- 
pended in London, Paris, or New York, in so short a time, would attract the 
admiration of the world. Yet the palatial hotels, massive business blocks, 
huge flouring-mills and elegant residences built with this money, stand on the 
wooded bluffs of the Mississippi, and the world cannot keep up with the facts. 
The paid-up capital and surplus of the National and State banks of these two 
cities together, were $2,225,000 in excess of those of New Orleans in 1885. 
Minneapolis alone handled 10,000,000 more bushels of wheat that year than 
Chicago. The Pillsbury A mill manufactured in one week that fall 40,050 
barrels of flour, on two separate days turning out 7,000 barrels; while the 
grist of the Pillsbury B is 2,000 barrels daily. During one ordinary crop-year 
those two mills made 1,730,000 barrels of flour, while the Washburn mills 
made 1,318,939 barrels; and there are, besides these mammoth mills, twenty- 
eight others in these cities, with a total daily capacity of 36,500 barrels. The 
amount of other manufactures in Minneapolis that year exceeded $26,000,000. 
Indeed, this is the natural home for manufactures of all kinds, there being no 
other locality in the West with its advantages. The climate is mild and pleas- 
ant, and to those who desire to get rich, we would say, " Go West, young 
man," but by all means go to one of the twin cities, as they have had an un- 
paralleled growth, and the indications are will continue to grow as rapidly as 
heretofore. 




CITY OF PROVIDENCE, 




ROVIDENCE, one of the two capitals (Providence and Newport) of 
Rhode Island, and the principal port of entry and county-seat of 
Providence County, is situated at the head of navigation on the 
Providence River, which is at the head of Narragansett Bay, i6o miles from 
New York, 44 from Boston, and 33 from the ocean. The harbor is spacious, 
and has depth for the largest ships. The place was settled by a colony of 

refugees from Massachu- 
setts under Roger Williams 
in 1636, who established 
there the oldest Baptist 
church in America in 1638. 
It was incorporated as a 
town in 1649. In 1776 the 
population was only 4,355, 
notwithstanding it had 
been settled 140 years. It 
was incorporated as a city 
in 1832. It is now the 
second city in New Eng- 
land in population, wealth, 
and manufacturing inter- 
ests, having an area of 19 
square miles on both sides 
of the river, which above 
the bridges expands into a 
FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH. covc E milc in circuit, on 

the banks of which is a handsome park, shaded with elms. It contains many 
beautiful residences, surrounded with fine lawns and gardens. Its commerce 
is very extensive, and the city abounds in manufactures and w'ealth. 

Among the manufactures which are produced on an extensive scale are 
cotton and woolen goods, tools, fire-arms, sewing-machines, iron-ware, gold and 
silver ware, jewelry, chemicals, dyestuffs, toilet and laundry soaps, and alarm 
tills. There are also several bleaching and calendering establishments. The 




GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. i59 

iron manufactures include steam-engines and boilers, butt-hinges, screws, 
locomotives, iron castings, etc. The manufacture of jewelry, however, is con- 
sidered the most extensive industry in Providence, there being nearly 200 
factories of this kind. The Household Sewing-Machine Company, purchasers 
of the property of the Providence Tool Company, employed in 1886 nearly 
2,000 men in manufacturing sewing-machines. Fine tools are manufactured 
by the Brown and Sharpe Manufacturing Company. Small wares and notions 
are made by the Fletcher Manufacturing Company. Solid silverware is man- 
ufactured by the Gorham Company on an extensive scale. There is also the 
'Providence Steam Engine Company, the Allen Fire Supply Company, the 
Barstow Stove Corripany, the Rhode Island Locomotive Works, the Corliss 
Steam-Engine Works, and Spicer & Peckham Stove Works. There are 6 cot- 
ton and woolen mills* it is also the headquarters of 100 cotton factories and 
60 woolen mills. 

The total value of the manufactures is about $65,000,000 annually; total 
imports about $150,000. The exports, which are unimportant, are quoted at 
only $23,000. This is probably accounted for from the fact that most of the 
vessels are engaged in the coast trade. The number of vessels belonging to 
the port is 126, of 32,000 tons, while nearly 1,000 engaged in the coast trade 
enter the port every year. 

There are several lines of steamboats, some of which connect with New 
York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Norfolk, and Charleston. The passenger 
steamboats run between Providence and the City of New York by the Provi- 
dence and Stonington Steamship Company are probably the largest, most 
elegant and best equipped of their kind in the world. Railroads radiate in 
all directions. There were in 1889 about 55 banks, 25 insurance companies, 
80 churches, 4 daily papers, and 80 public schools. Among the principal in- 
stitutions are Brown University, an Athenaeum with a library of about 50,- 
000 volumes, a College of the Society of Friends, a Roman Catholic Institute, 
Franklin Lyceum, hospitals and asylums. The city is governed by a Mayor, 
with one Alderman and four Councilm.en from each Ward. Its population 
in 1875 was 100,675; in 1880, 104,857; and in 1889, 125,000. 






i6o GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 

CITY OF MANCHESTER. 

ANCH ESTER is the most populous city in New Hampshire. It is 
situated on the Merrimac River, at the Falls of Amoskeag, 59 miles 
north of Boston, and 18 miles south of Concord, the capital of the 
State. Manchester was originally settled in 1722 by Scotch-Irish Presbyte- 
rians, and was at first called Derryfield, and incorporated under this name in 
1 75 1. The name was changed in 18 10 to Manchester, and the city was incor- 
porated in 1846. Its manufactures of woolen and cotton goods are of vast 
proportions. The great mills grind on day after day, and during the evening 
and at noon thousands of hard-working people' can be seen at the post-of^ce 
and on the streets. The falls of 54 feet afford water-power through canals, 
which is the foundation of the great manufactures, which consist of cotton 
and woolen goods, machinery, paper, steam-engines, locomotives, hardware, 
carriages, boots and shoes, soap, tools, starch, etc. The total capital invested 
in manufactures has been estimated at $12,000,000 to $15,000,000. Among 
the great corporations may be mentioned the Amoskeag Manufacturing 
Company, the Stark Mills, the Manchester Mills, and the Langdon Mills. 
The principal public buildings are the Court-house, State Reform School, 
Catholic Convent, Library, etc. The city contains 9 banks, about 20 churches, 
and 50 schools. Its streets are well shaded with elms. It is the terminus of 
several railroads. Population in i860, 20,000; 1870, 23,536; 1880, 32,000, and 
in 1889, 42,000. The other cities of New Hampshire are Concord, the capi- 
tal (population, 17,000), Nashua (14,000), Dover (i 1,000), Portsmouth (11,000), 
and Keene (7,000). 



CITY OF WORCESTER. 

ORCESTER is the semi-county-seat of Worcester County, Massachu- 
setts. It is situated on the Boston & Albany Railroad, 44 miles 
from Boston, in a valley surrounded by beautiful Jiills in a fine agri- 
cultural district. The building sites in and around Worcester are delightful, 
and many of the residences are handsome. The streets are broad and well 
shaded. The city is famous for its political and philanthropical conventions. 
The town was incorporated in 1722, and the city in 1848. It was from the 




THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. i6i 

steps of the old South Church (still on the Common) that the Declaration of 
Independence was first read in Massachusetts. Among the public buildings 
are the County Court-house, the Union Depot (a massive structure), and the 
high-school building. The principal institutions are the City Hospital, the 
Orphans' Home, the Homes for Aged Men and Women, the American Anti- 
quarian Society with a library of over 50,000 volumes and a valuable cabinet, 
the State Lunatic Asylum, the State Normal School, the College of the Holy 
Cross, which is the principal Catholic college in New England ; the Military 
Academy, and the Free Institute of Industrial Science. The liigh, grammar, 
intermediate, and primary schools are considered the model schools of New 
England. 

The principal manufactures consist of boots and shoes (of which there are 
over 30 factories), iron, wire, machinery, boilers, corsets, cotton goods, woolen 
goods, carpets, pistols, paper, locks, hardware, pianos, etc. The city is the 
centre of several railroads. There are numerous banks, insurance companies, 
and newspapers, three of the latter being French. Main and Front Streets 
are the principal business streets. The business blocks have a fine appear- 
ance, and impress a stranger with the magnitude and importance of the busi- 
ness which centres in Worcester. Population, 1880, 58,295 1886, 67,000; 
1889, 82,000. 



CITY OF PORTLAND, 




ORTLAND is the leading commercial city and a seaport of Maine, 
beautifully situated on an arm of the southwest side of Casco Bay. 
It occupies a peninsula three miles long by nearly a mile Avide. Its 
Indian name was Machigonne. It is 105 miles northeast of Boston, 60 miles 
southwest of Augusta, and 295 miles from Montreal. It includes several small 
islands in the bay, and was originally a part of Falmouth. It is connected with 
Montreal and Detroit by the Grand Trunk Railway; and is the terminus of 
six other railways. Grain is shipped from the Pacific coast to Portland without 
change of cars. Its trade with Europe, South America, the West Indies, and 
coast towns is very important. Its harbor is the best on the Atlantic coast, 
having 40 feet of water at low tide ; it is protected by the islands from storms, 
and has a good entrance. It is the winter station of the Canadian steamers. 
It is defended by two forts and the fortifications on Hog Island, which pro- 



'WW' ™B["WHffpi|li 



'i I 




GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



163 



tect four entrances. The exports average $25,000,000, and imports $22,000,- 
000. It has one dry-dock. Ship-building is conducted on an extensive scale. 
Among the other industries may be mentioned the manufacture of iron, car- 
riages, furniture, leather, petroleum, varnishes, boots and shoes, jewelry, etc. 
The sales of merchandise amount annually to about $50,000,000- the manu- 
factures amount to about $10,000,000. 

The city has fine, broad, shaded streets and handsome public edifices, 
among which may be mentioned a fire-proof and granite building for the 







CrrV HALL AND COURT-HOUSE. 



United States Courts and Custom-house, costing $490,000; the City Hall of 
olive-colored free-stone, the Mechanics' Hall of granite, the Post-office of 
white marble, etc. The city contains over 30 churches, and is the seat of an 
Episcopal Bishop and of a Catholic Bishop. It has numerous charitable in- 
stitutions, and about 70 societies for charitable objects. The city contains 
a Law Library and Public Library. 

The place was first settled in 1632 by an English colony, and was called 
Casco, but in 1668 it was changed to Falmouth. In 1786 a portion of the 
place, containing about 2,000 people, was called Portland. The pi incipal occu- 
pation of the early settlers consisted of fishing and trading in furs, which they 



i64 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 

purchased from the Indians. In 1675 the place contained but forty families. 
The town was incorporated in 171 8. In 1755 the population had reached 
nearly 3,000 souls. In 1800 Maine was separated from Massachusetts and 
admitted into the Union as a State, and from that time until 1832 Portland 
was the capital ; in the latter year the capital was removed to Augusta. 
Portland was three times burned in the wars with the French and Indians. 
In 1866, on the 4!:h of July, a fire-cracker in a boat-builder's shop was the 
cause of a fire which destroyed $10,000,000 worth of property. Population 
in 1870, 31,413; in 1880, 34,000; and in 1889, 40,000. 



CITY OF NEW HAVEN. 



EW HAVEN is the largest city in Connecticut and a port of entry. 
It is situated at the head of a bay, four miles from Long Island 
Sound, on a plain between the Quinipiack and West Rivers. East 
Rock and West Rock are on either side, and are of volcanic formation, about 
400 feet high. The city is 76 miles from New York and 36 from Hartford. 
The harbor is shallow, but has been much improved, and is provided with a 
breakwater. The city is known as " Elm City," from the fine old elm trees, 
many of which were planted over 100 years ago, which shade and adorn its 
streets, parks, and squares. 

The Rev. John Davenport and Theophilus Eaton, with a small colony of 
Puritans, founded New Haven in 1638, and with other adjoining towns it 
formed an independent colony until 1662, when it was included in the same 
charter with Connecticut. New Haven and Hartford were joint capitals 
from this time until 1874, when Hartford became the sole capital. 

The public square or "Green" is located in the centre of the city, and is 
surrounded by a double row of fine old elms. Temple Street, which passes 
through the "Green," is bordered by some of the finest elms in the cit\'. On 
the "Green" are three churches, one of which is the oldest in New Ha\en. 
Behind one of these churches are the tombs of the " regicides,"' Whalley, 
Dixwell, and Goffe ; and upon the side or slope of West Rock is a cave com- 
posed of boulders, in which the " regicides " concealed themselves, and on 
which is the inscription: "Opposition to tyrants is obedience to God." The 
central part of Chapel, Church, Orange, and State Streets is dex-oted to busi- 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 165 

ness. There are many fine streets, bordered with ancient elms, on which are 
handsome residences, surrounded with fine lawns and gardens. 

Among the finest edifices may be mentioned the City Hall, County Court- 
house, Post-office and Custom-house, the Yale College buildings, the Insur- 
ance building, the Hillhouse High-School, the Hospital, Trinity Church, St. 
Mary's Roman Catholic Church, and the Calvary Baptist Cburch. A large, 
new, and beautiful park has been built on East Rock, with several miles of 
drives. The scenery from the sides and top of this rock is very picturesque. 
The drives wind around the rock in serpentine form. On the top of the rock 
is a restaurant, from which point a beautiful view of the city can be had. 
The new Soldiers' Monument is to be erected on the top of East Rock, 
where it can be seen from the vessels coming up the harbor. The Farnham 
Drive and the English Drive are so named in honor of the late Mr. Farnham 
and Governor English, who donated the money for their construction. 
Churches, cemeteries, and fine drives abound in and about the City of Elms. 
Savin Rock, on the west shore, four miles from New Haven, has become very 
popular as a summer resort. It contains many fine residences, and is in 
some respects a miniature Coney Island. 

New Haven is a manufacturing city of great importance. Its manufac- 
tures of fire-arms, clocks, pianos and organs, carriages, india-rubber goods, 
corsets, iron goods, and machinery are very extensive. Other manufactured 
goods consist of cutlery, fish-hooks, paper boxes, brass goods, musical instru- 
ments, boots and shoes. It is the centre of a considerable wholesale and 
retail trade. The carriage business is one of the largest industries in the city. 
It is probably the first city in the Union for fine carriages. The Candee 
Rubber Factory is claimed to be the second largest in the world, while the 
Winchester Rifle Company finds a market not only in the United States, but 
in many parts of the globe. The Wheeler Iron Works and Sargent's factories 
are among the most important in the State. Nearly all the coal and much of 
the freight of New England passes through the city. 

New Haven in years past has had a large intercourse with the West 
Indies, but in later years much of it is conducted from New York. Its com- 
merce with Europe has increased rapidly, its foreign exports chiefly consist- 
ing of fire-arms, cartridges, shot, carriages, pianos, organs, machinery, etc. 
In one year 80 vessels of about 17,000 tons entered and 34 vessels of 9,000 
tons cleared the port in the foreign trade. The direct foreign exports 
amounted to nearly $3,500,000, and the direct foreign imports to nearly $1,- 



i66 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES 

000,000. Much of the business being done through New York, these figures 
do not represent the entire exports and imports. About 800 vessels are 
engaged in the coast trade, which is very extensive ; about 200 vessels belong 
to the district. There are 12 National, State, and savings banks, i trust 
company, 2 insurance companies; 5 lines of railroad connect it with all parts 
of the country, and 2 daily lines of steamboats with New York. It is the seat 
of Yale College, which was founded in 1700; first established at Saybrook, 
and removed to New Haven in 17 16. It is named in honor of Elihu Yale, 
who was born in New Haven in 1648, and when ten years old was taken to 
England by his father, and never returned; was afterwards Governor of the 
East India Company, and Fellow of the Royal Society. His gifts to Yale 
were about i?500 in money and many books. The college has over 100 in- 
structors and nearly 1,200 students. Of its four faculties the medical was 
organized in 1812, the thological in 1822, the legal in 1824 and the philosoph- 
ical in 1847. Its government consists of the Governor and Lieutenant- 
Governor of the State, 6 fellows, its President, and 10 ministers. There is a 
geological and mineralogical cabinet of 30,000 specimens, and the college has 
the historical pictures and portraits of Trumbull. The buildings of the 
academical department occupy one of the squares in which the city was first 
laid out. It is almost in the centre of the city, above the "Green" or park; 
it has about 650 students. Examinations are held in Chicago, Cincinnati, 
and New Haven each summer for admission to this department; the course 
is four years. The college library has about 100,000 volumes; the libraries 
of the professional departments number about 20,000 volumes. The Peabody 
Museum of Natural History in connection with Yale College was erected 
from a fund of $150,000 donated by George Peabody, of England, and its 
accumulations, at a cost of $175,000. The collections are open to the public. 

The population of New Haven in 1870 was 50,840; in 1880,62,882; and in 
1889, 84,000. 



CITY OF HARTFORD. 

ARTP'ORD is the capital and one of the principal commercial cities 
of Connecticut, and is situated in the centre of the State, on the 
west bank and 50 miles from the mouth of the Connecticut River, 
at the head of navigation, 36 miles from New Haven and 1 1 1 miles from New 
York. It is a port of delivery connected with the District of Middletown. 




THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 167 

The new Capitol is of white marble, and was erected at a cost of $2,500,000, 
and opened in 1878. It is one of the finest structures of its kind in America. 
It is 295 feet long, 189 feet deep, and 257 feet high from the ground to the top 
of the crowning figure. It is located in the park on Capitol Hill, and com- 
mands a splendid view. The city is beautifully situated on rolling ground or 
small hills, and covers about 10 square miles. A small river, known as Park 
River, runs through the park; and near the centre of the town a fine bridge 
spans the Connecticut River, and connects East Hartford with Hartford. The 
park covers 45 acres, and is named after the late Rev. Dr. Horace Bushnell. 
It contains a memorial arch, erected by the town of Hartford, " In honor of 
those who served and in memory of those who fell in the War for the 
Union; " a fine statue by Ward of General Israel Putnam, and a statue of Dr. 
Horace Wells, the discoverer of anaesthesia. Trinity College formerly occupied 
the site now occupied by the Capitol. Its new site is on Rocky Hill, ap- 
proached by some of the finest avenues of the city. The buildings are of 
brown stone, and form three great quadrangles; the front is about 1,300 feet 
long; the grounds consist of 80 acres. This city is the home of Samuel L. 
Clemens (Mark Twain), Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, and was the home of 
the late Mrs. Sigourney, the poetess. Some of the private residences in 
Hartford are very beautiful, and are set in lawns and gardens, many of them 
adorned with statuary, groves, and greenhouses. 

The city is regularly laid out. The principal retail trade is on Main and 
Asylum Streets, which cross each other at right angles at State House Square 
in the centre of the city. It is here that the old State House stands, now 
occupied as the City Hall. It was built in 1795. It was in this old State 
House that the famous Hartford Convention met in 1815. The new Post- 
ofiice is an elegant structure, and is located just back of the old State House. 

Hartford was settled in 1635 by English colonists who had first settled in 
Massachusetts. In 1636 was established the General Court of the Colony; in 
the following year occurred the war with the Pequot Indians; the first church 
was founded in 1638 ; a Constitution for the government of the Colony was 
framed in 1639; a House of Correction was established in 1640; the first 
tavern was authorized in 1644; capital offences were reduced (by a new code 
of laws) from 160 under the English laws to 15 in 1650. In 1654 the Dutch 
of New Amsterdam, who had possession for a time, were ejected. 

Governor Andross tried to seize the Colonial Charter in 1687, but failed in 
the attempt, as it was carried off ^ind hid in tb.e famous Charter Oak tree. 



i68 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 

Connecticut was very patriotic in the Revolution, and contributed largely in 
men and money to the late Civil War. The city of Hartford was incor- 
porated in 1784. It became the sole capital in 1874, New Haven and Hart- 
ford having been semi-capitals previous to this date. 

Hartford has an extensive trade with nearly all parts of the country. It 
is one of the principal seats of the life and fire insurance business, and several 
of the finest buildings in Hartford have been constructed by insurance com- 
panies. Book publishing has been conducted on a very extensive scale for a 
city of its size. Among the great manufactories may be mentioned Colt's 
Arms Factory (capital, $1,000,000), the Weed Sewing-Machine Factory, the 
Pratt & Whitney Machine Factory, the Washburn Car- Wheel Factory, the 
Plimpton Envelope Company, several large iron works and foundries, mar- 
ble works, and Cheney's Silk Mills. The various manufactures amount to 
about $7,000,000 annually. In proportion to the number of inhabitants, Hart- 
ford is claimed to be the richest city in America. 

The Deaf and Dumb Institute was founded in 1817 by Dr. Gallaudet. 
The Retreat for the Insane is a fine building in which nearly 5,000 patients 
have been treated. Among the other institutions are the Wadsworth Athen- 
aeum, in which the Connecticut Historical Society is located; the Hartford 
Hospital, the State Bible Society, the State Arsenal, the Widows' Home, and 
the City Hospital. About forty churches adorn the city. The Church of 
the Good Shepherd (Episcopal) was built by Mrs. Colt as a memorial to her 
husband. It is a very beautiful structure, with fine memorial windows. The 
Cedar Hill cemetery is very picturesque, and has many fine monuments. 
Hartford has a fine system of public schools, and contains the oldest gram- 
mar school in the State, founded in 1655. The city has a Free Library, 
a School of Design, and about 20 banks. Railroads connect the city with all 
parts of New England, and numerous lines of steamboats and sailing craft 
carry on an extensive commerce. Among its exports are tobacco and silks. 
Hartford is famous as one of the oldest towns in the country where were 
enacted the "Blue Laws." Population in 1870, 37,180; in 1880, 45,000; and 
in 1889, 50.000. 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 169 

CITY OF SYRACUSE. 

YRACUSE is an important city of Central New York and county 
seat of Onondaga County. It is situated in the Onondaga Valley, 
at the head of Onondaga Lake, on the Erie Canal, at the junction 
of the New York Central and Oswego Railroads. It is 148 miles from Albany 
and 150 miles from Buffalo. The Oswego Canal runs north from the city. 
It is the centre of a large trade on account of its central location. It is 
sometimes called the " City of Conventions." The manufacture of salt is 
one of its principal industries. The salt springs were first discovered by the 
Jesuits in 1654, and were taken possession of by the State in 1797, at which 
time special laws were passed governing the manufacture. About twenty 
companies are now engaged in this industry; the works are situated on the 
shores of the lake, and are the largest in America. 

The other important industries are iron furnaces, numerous large machine- 
shops, Bessemer steel works, rolling-mills, boiler works, fruit canning, silver- 
ware, breweries, carriage-shops, malleable iron works, musical instruments 
(organs), tinware, sheet-iron, door, sash and blind factories, agricultural im- 
plements, etc. There are over 100 large manufacturing establishments; the 
annual product is about $20,000,000. It is a handsome city; contains a Court- 
house, State Arsenal, State Lunatic Asylum, 56 churches, 1 1 banks, and 
numerous schools and libraries. Population in 1880 55,563; in 1889, 83,540. 



CITY OF SPRINGFIELD. 



PRINGFIELD, Mass., is an important commercial centre. It is situ- 
ated in the Connecticut Valley, on the east bank of the Connecticut 
River, 138 miles from New York, 102 from Albany, and 98 from 
Boston. It is the county seat of Hampden County, and the centre of a large 
number of railroads that connect it with all parts of the country and have done 
much towards the growth of the city. The principal industries are the United 
States Armory, employing about 800 men ; the Smith & Wesson Company (man- 
ufacturers of revolvers), the Wason Car Company (manufacturers of railroad 
cars), and the Morgan Envelope Company. 'Other manufactures are cigars, 
jewelry, buttons, cloth, edge tools, pumps, gas machines, fire-engines, india- 



370 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 

rubber goods, and paper. Some emigrants from Roxbury settled in Spring- 
field in 1635. The place was at first called Agawam, and finally changed to 
Springfield in 1640. The city was incorporated in 1852. The main street in 
Springfield has an attractive business appearance; it is long and broad, and 
has many fine business blocks. The streets are generally shaded. The ar- 
senal is situated on the hill in a fine park of over 70 acres. During the 
Ci\'il War the armory was run night and day, and about $12,000,000 were 
■expended in the production of arms. Four bridges span the Connecticut 
River at this point. The suburbs of the city are very picturesque. 

The public buildings consist of the Court-house (a fine granite building); 
the City Hall ; the Public Library, containing about 50,000 volumes, which 
cost over $100,000; a Museum of Natural History is also located in this build- 
ing. About 30 fine churches adorn the city. There are numerous banks, fire 
and life insurance companies. It is here that the Springfield Republican is 
published, a paper that is well known in all parts of the country; there are 
numerous other papers, both daily and weekly. There is a good system of 
public schools, and the fire and police departments are very efficient. This 
-city is the home of Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, the publication of 
which has done much to increase the reputation of Springfield, Popu- 
lation, 1870, 26,703; 1880, 33,340; 1889, 42,000. 



m 



CITY OF LYNN 



YNN, a city of Massachusetts, on the east bank of the Saugus River, 
extends 3 miles along the Atlantic shore, 9 miles northeast of Bos- 
ton. It has a small harbor lying west of the peninsula of Nahant. 
It is connected with Boston by the B., R. B. & L. and B. & M. Railroads, and 
by a horse railroad. Nearly the whole population is engaged in the manufac- 
ture of boots and shoes and works connected therewith. The shipments of 
boots and shoes annually are about 12,000,000 pairs, worth about $20,000,000. 
There are over 200 establishments engaged in this industry, with an estimated 
capital of, $12,000,000. The leather industry employs nearly $1,000,000 capi- 
tal ; tanning and finishing about 1,000 skins per day. These industries employ 
nearly 12,000 hands. Among the principal architectural attractions of the 
city is the St. Stephen's Church edifice, presented to the parish by the 
late E. R. Mudge, of Swampscott, as a memorial to his son. Colonel Charles 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 171 

E. Mudge, killed at Gettysburg. The material of which the church is 
built was taken from the Mudge estate at Swampscott. The place was 
settled in 1629, and incorporated in 1850. Originally it comprised the town 
of Swampscott and the watering-place of Nahant, which is two miles dis- 
tant. " We have more men than uniforms; what shall we do? " was the 
response to the call of the State for troops in 1861. It was in Lynn that 
the first American fire-engine was made, and the remains of the original iron- 
works are still exhibited. The coasting trade is considerable. High Rock, 
in the centre of the city, is 180 feet high, and is the end of a range of hills that 
form its north background. It has a Soldiers' Monument which cost over 
$30,000, erected in 1872; three beautiful cemeteries, extensive water-works, 
a well-organized Fire Department, a fine system of public schools, a Free 
Public Library, with 30,000 volumes ; about 30 churches, a City Hall which 
cost over $300,000, two fire insurance companies, and banks with about $1,500,- 
000 capital. The handsome common, the public squares, and above all, the 
beach, where numerous fine residences have been built, add much to the 
attractions of Lynn. Salem, noted for witchcraft, is only five miles distant. 
Population of Lynn, 1870,28,000; 1880, 38,284; 1889, 51,000. 



CITY OF TROY. 



ROY is a city of New York, and the capital of Rensselaer County. It 
is situated on the east bank of the Hudson River at its confluence 
with the Mohawk, at the head of steamboat navigation and tide- 
water, 151 miles north of New York City and 6 miles north of Albany. Troy 
was settled by the Dutch in 1700, and was incorporated as a village in 1794. 
Four times it has been nearly destroyed by fire; in 1862 the loss amounted to 
$3,000,000. Two small streams, having a series of falls, furnish water-power 
to mills and factories, besides that given by a dam across the Hudson. At 
Troy is the principal outlet of the canals connecting the Hudson with Lakes 
Champlain, Ontario, and Erie; and it has railways diverging in all directions, 
connecting it with New York, Boston, etc. The Union Depot, in the centre 
of the city, is one of the largest in America. 

The iron furnaces and manufactories are the largest east of the Alle- 
ghanies, being furnished with the magnetic ores of Lake Champlain and the 
hematitic ores of Western Massachusetts. The coal is brought from Pennsyl- 



172 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 

vania and Maryland. The chief iron-works are those for bar-iron, radlway- 
spikes, nails, locomotives, stoves, hot-air furnaces, hollow-ware, machinery, 
agricultural implements, etc. Other important manufactures are those of 
railway cars, coaches, cotton and woolen goods, breweries, flour, boots and 
shoes, and shirts and collars — the latter employing upward of 10,000 persons, 
with extensive machinery. The first Bessemer steel works in the United 
States were located at Troy. Its manufacture of stoves exceeds that of any 
other city in the Union ; while the products of its furnaces, rolling-mills, and 
foundries are enormous. There is also the largest manufactory of mathemat- 
ical instruments in the country. The articles which reach tide-water by the 
canals centering at Troy, including lumber, are valued at $17,000,000 annu- 
ally. A fine iron bridge, which cost $250,000, spans the river, connecting 
Troy and West Troy; the latter is practically a part of Troy, as Alleghany 
City is of Pittsburgh. 

The city contains 55 churches, fine public schools, the Rensselaer Poly- 
technic Institution, a Roman Catholic seminary, asylums, academies, etc. The 
Watervliet Arsenal, with workshops located in handsome grounds, is in West 
Troy. Population, 1870, 46,421 ; 1880,56,747; 1889,66,000. 




CITY OF ALBANY. 

LRANY is the capital of New York ; it is situated on the west bank 
of the Hudson River, 145 miles north of New York City. It is the 
oldest town in the Union, with the exception of Jamestown, Va., 
and St. Augustine, Fla. It was settled by the Dutch, and used as a trading- 
post with the Indians as early as. 1614; it as known as Beaver Wyck, and 
afterwards as Williamstadt. Fort Orange was erected in 1623, and the place 
was known by that name until it came into the possession of the British in 
1664, when it was named Albany, in honor of the Duke of York and Albany, 
afterward James II. It was -incorporated as a city in 1686, and in 1797 
became the capital of the State. 

The new Capitol at Albany is a magnificent structure. It is built of 
granite, and was erected at great cost; it is, in fact, one of the finest, largest, 
and most expensive buildings of the kind in the Union. It is 390 feet long 
by 290 wide, and covers more than three acres. It contains the public institu- 
tions, among which arc the State Library, containing 150,000 volumes, and a. 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 



^71 



great many interesting Revolutionary relics; and the Geological Hall, con- 
taining very extensive and varied collections in geology and natural history. 
The State Hall is used for certain departments of the government. The 
State Normal School, established in 1844, has been very successful. The 
Albany Academy has a building of rare architectural beauty. The Union 
University, in which the most important branches of practical science are 
taught in all their departments, was incorporated in 1852. The Medical Col- 
lege, founded in 1839, has one of the best museums in America, and is well 
furnished with ample means of instruction. The Law School, established in 
185 1, has educated 
a large number of 
students. The 
Dudley Observa- 
tory, established 
in 1852, is well or- 
ganized and equip- 
ped for its purpo- 
ses; The Medical 
and Law Schools 
were at first sepa- 
rate, institutions, 
but now, with 
Union College, 
constitute Union 
University. 

Albany has a fine system of public schools, with a high-school, which is 
very efficient. There are two public hospitals and a penitentiary. It is a 
great centre of railways, and is one of the largest timber markets in the 
world ; millions of cubic feet pass through this market annually. Stove man- 
ufacture is an important branch of its industries. The city is situated in the 
midst of a fertile country, and is a great emporium for the transit trade of 
the North and West with the cities on the coast, and being situated at the 
point where the Champlain and Erie Canals join the Hudson, it has great 
advantages for commerce. It contains some of the finest public edifices in 
the Union, which for rare architectural beauty are seldom surpassed. Viewed 
from some points on the river, Albany has a fine, picturesque, and striking 
appearance. Three large bridges span the Hudson River. The water supply 




ALBANY, N. Y. 



174 ^ GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 

is from an artificial lake a short distance from the city, and in part from the 
Hudson. There is a beautiful public park on the west side of the city, in 
which some of the scenery is very picturesque. There are over 60 churches 
of various denominations. The population in 1880 was 90,903, and in 1889, 
1 00,000. 




CITY OF LOWELL 

OWELL is an important manufacturing city of Massachusetts, situ- 
ated on the Merrimac River, 25 miles from Boston. It is the centre 
of numerous railroads, and has been called the Manchester of Amer- 
ica, by reason of its vast manufacturing industries. The Merrimac River, near 
the mouth of the Concord River, has a fall of 33 feet at this point, which sup- 
plies canals with water power. These canals are controlled by a company, 
which erected extensive factories for twelve large corporations, who consume 
about 10,000,000 pounds of wool and 50,000,000 pounds of cotton annually, and 
have an invested capital of $16,000,000 and employ 16,000 operatives, of whom 
over 11,000 are females. The employes for years came from the agricultural 
districts of the surrounding States, and lived in large boarding-houses, built 
and owned b}- the corporations, and kept under strict discipline. Foreign im- 
migration has added largely to the number of operatives in later years. The 
twelve corporations produce annually 140,000,000 yards of cotton, 3,500,000 
yards of woolen cloth, 2,500,000 yards of carpets, 135,000 shawls, nearly 
10,000,000 dozen hosiery (d)'e and print), and 67,000,000 )'ards cotton 
cloth. It has eighty large mills. The capital of each corporation varies 
from $1,250,000 to $2,500,000. The carpets manufactured include ingrain, 
Brussels, and Melton, and equal in design, quality, and finish any manufac- 
tured in Europe. Among the other industries are the Lowell machine- 
shops, cmi)l(n-ing 1,400 men and a capital of $600,000; tlvo Kitson IMach- 
inery Factor)-, the American Bolt Compan}-. the Swaine Turbine Wheel 
Company, aiul the Lowell Blcachery, employing 500 hands and over $250,000 
capital. Other manufactures are hosiery, edge tools, tiles, screws, fixed am- 
munition and cartridges, paper, hair felt, elastic goods, carriages, furniture, 
pumps, hydraulic presses, bobbins, chemicals, etc. 

The City Librar)- contains 17,000 volumes ; the Mechanics' Librar)-, 13,- 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. i75 

ooo volumes. The city was chartered in 1836. It originally consisted of the 
town of Chelmsford; subsequently parts of Dracot and Tewksbury were 
added. It is well paved, drained, and lighted by gas. It has a Court-house 
and 7 national banks, with an aggregate capital of $2,350,000. There are 6 
savings banks, two hospitals, two insurance companies, Roman Catholic Or- 
phan Asylum, an old Ladies' Home, Young Women's Home, a good Fire De- 
partment, with an electric fire-alarm, and a well-organized police force. The 
city has handsome public squares. In the centre of the city is a monument 
erected to the memory of Ladd and Whitney, members of the Sixth Massa- 
chusetts Volunteers, who were killed on April 19, 1861, by a mob in Balti- 
more. The water-works were finished in 1873, and cost $1,500,000. The city 
was named in honor of Francis Cabot Lowell, of Boston. Belvidere is the 
fashionable quarter of the city, and is in the eastern section. The population 
in 1861 was 36,827; 1870, 40,928; 1880, 59,845; 1889, 80,000. 



CITY OF SCRANTON 




CRANTON is a city in Pennsylvania. It is situated in a valley on 
the Lackawanna River. It was founded by a family of the name of 
Scranton in i840,and incorporated as a city in 1866. It is 145 miles 
from New York and 167 miles from Philadelphia. It is in the midst of the coal 
region. Its shipments, upward of 50,000 tons daily, are enormous, and it has a 
large trade in mining supplies. It has vast iron and steel works, extensive ma- 
chine-shops, breweries, gunpowder works, and stove works. It fixes the Ameri- 
can rate on steel rails. Other industries are silk fabrics, brass goods, leather, 
hollow-ware, etc. It has numerous handsome and substantial public buildings, 
12 banks, over 30 fine churches, gas-works, water-works, a good fire depart- 
ment, numerous charitable institutions, public schools, academies, a Board of 
Trade, a Scientific and Historical Society, and a fine collection of Indian relics. 
The city is well laid out, and has a fine business appearance. Its wholesale 
trade is very extensive. It is on the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Rail- 
road, and is the terminus of the Lackawanna & Bloomsburgh, Delaware & 
Hudson, the Erie, and the Philadelphia & Reading Railroads. Scranton is a 
growing city and a great hive of industry. Population, 1880,45,850; 1889,. 
90,000. 



CITY OF BUFFALO. 




UFFALO for many years has been called the " Queen City of the 
Lakes," and well merits that proud appellation. It is a port of 
entry, and the capital of Erie County, New York; situated at 
the eastern extremity of Lake Erie, at the head of Niagara River, and the 
mouth of Buffalo River, in latitude 42 degrees 53 minutes north, longitude 
78 degrees 55 minutes west ; about 293 miles northwest of New York City, 
and is the western terminus of the Erie Canal. It has one of the finest har- 
bors on the lakes, formed by the Buffalo River, a small stream which is navi- 




V Ml\\ IN ILFl ALO I \Rk 



gable for about three miles from its mouth. The entrance is protected by a 
breakwater 1,500 feet long, upon the south side of the river. In 1869 the 
United States Government began the construction of an outside harbor, by 
building a breakwater, 4,000 feet long, fronting the entrance to Buffalo River, 
at a distance of about one-half mile from th-e shore. In addition to the har- 
bor, there are a large number of slips, docks, and basins, for the accommoda- 
tion of shipping and canal-boats. The city was founded in 1804, and named 
New Amsterdam. It became a military post in 1813, andwas destroyed by 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 177 

the British in the same year. The place was rebuilt after the war, and took its 
present name from the river, on whose banks stood the principal village of 
the Seneca Indians, and where lived the famous chiefs, Red Jacket and 
Farmers Brother. 

It grew rapidly after the completion in 1825 of the Erie Canal, and soon 
became a transfer station for all the commerce of the lakes. It was incor- 
porated as a city in 1832, with a population of about lO.OOO. In later years 
it has become one of the most important railroad centres in the country. It 
is the terminus of the New York Central; New York, Lake Erie, and West- 
ern; Lake Shore and Michigan Southern; Michigan Central; New York, 
West Shore, and Buffalo; Lehigh Valley; Delaware, Lackawanna, and West- 
ern ; Buffalo, New York, and Philadelphia ; New York, Chicago, and St. Louis ; 
Buffalo, Rochester, and Pittsburg, and two branches of the Grand Trunk rail- 
roads. The railroad yard facilities are the most extensive in the world, there 
being about 660 miles of track inside of the city. The vast quantities of grain 
moving east to the Atlantic coast form an important part of the commerce of 
Buffalo, and no other city in the Union has better facilities for handling or 
storing it, there being about 40 elevators with a capacity for handling nearly 
4,000,000 bushels per day. The large stock-yards in the eastern suburbs of 
the city are used not only as a transfer station, but as a market for local dis- 
tribution. The city has an immense trade in coal, which arrives from Penn- 
sylvania, and is shipped east by rail and canal and west by lake. Its anthra- 
cite coal docks are the most extensive in the world. There is quite an ex- 
tensive trade in lumber from Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Lower Canada. 
There are over thirty large establishments for the manufacture of iron, be- 
sides two yards fitted for iron ship-building, which have produced some of 
the finest vessels on the lakes, and many iron revenue vessels for the Gov- 
ernment. Buffalo takes the lead in the quality of hemlock sole leather pro- 
duced in the United States. Its flour-mills are also quite extensive, having 
a capacity of 3,850 bbls. per day. 

The city is regularly built, being eight miles long, north and south, and 
about five miles wide, containing 42 square miles. It has long been cele- 
brated for the elegance of its private dwellings, which can be found in 
nearly every part of the city, especially on the avenues lying west of Main 
Street. The broad, straight avenues lined by noble trees add greatly to the 
beauty of the city. The climate, though cold in winter, is considered pleasant 
and very healthful ; there are good water and sewage systems. Many of the 



178 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 

streets are paved with smooth asphalt. The city is divided into thirteen 
wards, and its principal officers are the Mayor and Common Council, com- 
posed of two Aldermen from each ward, the Comptroller, City Treasurer, City 
Engineer, Street Commissioner, three Assessors, and Corporation Counsel. 

The assessed value of its taxable property is $1 14,000,000. Its principal 
public buildings are: The City and County Hall, completed in 1876, at a cost 
of $1,445,000. It is built of granite, is three stories high, not including the 
finished basement, and furnishes quarters for all the city and county officers, 
as well as the courts. It is situated on the square bounded by Franklin, 
Church, Delaware, and Eagle Streets. The County Jail is on the opposite side 
of Delaware Street, and is connected by a tunnel under the street. There are 
also the State Insane Asylum, completed at a cost of over $2,000,000; the Erie 
County Almshouse; Erie County Penitentiary, and many public hospitals, 
asylums, and charitable institutions. Among its fine edifices are, the Custom- 
house ; the German Insurance Building; the Hayen Building; the White 
Building; the Board of Trade Building; the Marine Bank Building; the 
Young Men's Association Building; the Erie County, Western, and Buffalo 
Savings Banks Buildings; the Fine-Art Academy; the Fitch Creche; the 
State Arsenal; and the Seventy-fourth Regiment Armory; besides many 
elegant hotels and railroad depots. 

Among the institutions in which special interest is taken are the Young 
Men's Association, now called the " Buffalo Library " ; the Society of Natural 
Sciences; the Grosvenor Library; the Buffalo Historical Society; the Acad- 
emy of Fine-Arts; the Decorative Arts Society; the Liedertafel Singing 
Society; the Buffalo Orphan Asylum ; the Young Men's Christian Associa- 
tion ; and the Law Library. 

There are over 100 churches and, places of public worship; ten daily 
newspapers and ten weeklies, beside several monthly periodicals; over 
fifty public schools; a State normal school; one high-school; two medical 
colleges; St. Joseph's College, conducted by the Christian Brothers; and 
Canisus College; beside numerous private schools, colleges, and acade- 
mies. Music Hall, the property of the German Young Men's Association, 
was destroyed by fire March, 1885, but was subsequently rebuilt more 
substantially than before. The Young Men's Association, now the Buf- 
falo Library Association, have also erected a new and elegant fire-proof 
building for the accommodation of their valuable circulating library of 
nearly 50,000 volumes, and for the joint occupation also of the BuiTalo His- 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 179 

torical Society, the Society of Natural Sciences, and the Academy of Fine- 
Arts. The park system, extending around the business part of the city in the 
shape of a horse-shoe, contains over 600 acres, and is connected by boule- 
vards comprising over 12 miles of delightful drives. Forest Lawn Cemetery 
is beautifully situated, and laid out in the northern part of the city It con- 
tains 75 acres. 

The population in iSiowas 1,500; in 1830,8,653; in 1850,42,000; in 1870, 
117,700; in 1880, 155,134; and in 1889, 242,000. 



CITY OF TRENTON. 

RENTON is the capital of New Jersey and an important manufac- 
turing city. It is situated on the Delaware River at its confluence 
with Assanpink Creek, at the head of steamboat navigation, 28 
miles from Philadelphia and 57 miles from New York by the Feiinsylvania 
Railroad. It is a well-built and handsome city, and commands a fine view of 
the river. It contains the State Capitol, State Lunatic Asylum for 600 
patients, State Normal School, Deaf and Dumb Asylum, State Penitentiary, 
State Library of 25,000 volumes, 36 churches, several daily newspapers, and 
extensive railway connections. The city is famous for its extensive manu- 
factures of terra-cotta and crockery, which exceed all the rest of the United 
States put together. Cooper & Hewitt's large iron-works and Roebling's 
famous cable bridge works are located here. Other manufactures are steam- 
engines, machinery, wire, wire-cordage, cotton, woolen, and rubber. In the 
war of the Revolution, Trenton was the scene (December 25, 1776) of a night 
attack by Washington upon the British troops— chiefly Hessians — whom he 
surprised by crossing the Delaware when the floating ice was supposed to 
have rendered it impassable. Population, 1870, 22,870; 1880, 30,000; 1889 
60,000, 



CITY OF WILMINGTON. 

ILMINGTON is a city and port of North Carolina, on the Cape 
Fear River, just below the junction of the northeast and north- 
west branches, about seven miles from the sea. It has a fine 
harbor, railway connections, and internal navigation. The exports are ex- 




i8o GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

tensive, and consist of cotton, shingles, tar, resin, turpentine, lumber, rice, 
etc. It is sufficiently far south to enjoy a balmy climate, and is, \\ithal, 
not only an enterprising and growing city, but a shady, attractive place, 
sufficiently near the sea to gain the advantage of its health-giving saline 
atmosphere. It has fine drives and watering-places. Wilmington is a rail- 
road centre of importance, and a port of heavy shipments of Carolinian 
staples. Depth of water at main bar, iS}4 feet. 

During the Civil War it was one of the principal ports of the Confederacy, 
and was celebrated as a port for blockade-runners. It finally surrendered 
to General Terry in 1865. Population, 1870, I3,z|46; in 1880, 17,300; and 
in 1889, 23,000. 



CITY OF HARRISBURG. 




ARRISBURG is the capital of Pennsylvania and the county seat of 
Dauphin County, situated on the Susquehanna River, and sur- 
rounded by a productive region and magnificent scenery. It is 
106 miles from IMiiladelphia. The river is here a mile wide, and is crossed 
by three railroad bridges, one of which is nearly 4,700 feet in length. It has 
a handsome State House, 180 by 80 feet, surmounted by a dome. It has a 
handsome public square. Its industries consist of iron foundries, machine- 
shops, coach, car, and steam-engine factories, tanneries, breweries, saw-mills, 
cotton-mills, etc. It is the seat of a Catholic bishopric. The Cumberland 
Valley, the Pennsylvania, the I^'orthern Central, the Philadelphia & Reading, 
the Schuylkill & Susquehanna, and the Southern Pennyslvania railroads 
radiate from this centre. 

The city has a United States Court-house and Post-office building, Court- 
house, jail. State Arsenal, State Lunatic Asylum, 35 churches, several acade- 
mies, 10 newspaper-offices, markets, and excellent schools. It was settled 
in 1733 by John Harris, an Englishman, under a grant from the Penns, the 
original European settlers of Pennsylvania. In 1785 a town \vas laid out, 
and named Harrisburg, after John Harris, Jr., the founder. An attempt was 
made by Chief-Justice McKean to change the name to Louisburg, in honor of 
the Dauphin of France, but was successfully resisted by Harris. It was 
selected as the seat of the State capital in 18 12. The city is well paved, and 
has gas, electric light, and water. Population, 1870, 23,104; 1880, 30,400; 
and 1889, 40,000. 




KANSAS CITY. 

ANSAS CITY is the county seat of Jackson County, situated in 
tlie State of Missouri, at the confluence of the Missouri and 
Kansas (or Kaw) Rivers. The boundary Hne between the States 
of Kansas and Missouri runs through the western section of the city. A 
large part of the city is built on a plateau, covering numerous bluffs, which 
are boldly rugged and picturesque. The principal bluff almost overhangs 
the narrow strip of land called the bottom that runs parallel with the river. 
The plateau is intersected by numerous ravines, which form great hills and 
pretty vales all across the entire city. Thus it happens that almost every 
street in Kansas City, save only those in " the bottom," is a constant series 
of " ups and downs," hills and valleys. This lends a picturesqueness to 
the view when taken from any point of observation that is exceedingly inter- 
esting and enjoyable. Situated in the midst of a territory rich in natural 
resources to an almost unlimited extent, and with almost unequalled climatic 
advantages, Kansas City engages in commerce of infinite variety. Crop 
failures are less damaging for the reason that all do not fail in the same 
season, and the ever-expanding live-stock industry furnishes a great source 
of revenue. 

Kansas City has become the central point in the United States for the 
packing and canning interest. With six great packing-houses, Kansas City is 
producing pork products and canned meats that are shipped in immense 
quantities to all parts of the United States, and the trade abroad has become 
a regular and special factor in the business. The Western States and Terri- 
tories are regular patrons of the packing-houses in this city, the trade extend- 
ing even to the Pacific coast. A conservative estimate of the packing output 
of the city in value is $35,000,000 annually. 

In bank clearings Kansas City ranks as the eleventh city in the Union. 
The business buildings of the city are extensive and very substantial ; the 
private residences are numerous and elegant; and the value of real estate 
has advanced rapidly, in many instances more than doubling in a year. 
Fremont alluded to the site of the city in 1843 as Chouteau's Landing. The 
growth of the city began from 1850 to i860. After the Civil War it became 
one of the great railroad centres and an important point for supplying emi- 



i82 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

grants on their western journey, and the principal market for the sale of 
cattle, buffalo skins, and hides. It is now the centre of a vast railway system. 
Most of these railroads cross the Missouri River on an iron bridge 1,387 feet 
long, and supported by stone piers. The Kansas River is spanned by two 
other fine bridges. 

Kansas City is almost in the geographical centre of the country, as she is 
in the centre of the rich agricultural region. The line of industrial and pop- 
ulous growth approaches near this point with each year of progress, and it is 
easy to discover why Kansas City extends its trade limits with such remarka- 
ble rapidity. 

The city has one of the best paying cable lines in the United States, and 
several others are in course of construction. There are numerous grain 
elevators, having storage capacity for a vast quantity of grain ; immense 
stock-yards, and a cattle stock exchange. Bituminous coal, taken from the 
surrounding counties, is distributed from this point over a vast region of ter- 
ritory. Population, 1870, 32,260; 1880, 55,813, 1889, 200,000. 




CITY OF EVANSVILLE. 

VANSVILLE is an enterprising city and port of entry of Indiana. 
It is situated in Vanderburgh County, on the right bank of the 
Ohio, midway between Louisville and Cairo, 150 miles from In- 
dianapolis. It is very advantageously adapted for trade, being connected by 
several railroads with the great railroad system of the United States. From 
Evansville downward the navigaticm of the river is seldom interrupted either 
by drought or by ice; and here terminates the Wabash & Erie Canal, the 
longest work of the kind in America. Thus, the place connects the Lower 
Ohio at once with the inland lakes and with the Gulf of Mexico. Coal and 
iron ore abound in the vicinity. It is a manufacturing centre of importance, 
and the trade in agricultural products is very extensive. The city has a fine 
Custom-house and Post-ofifice, Court-house, Marine Hospital, numerous public 
halls, schools, churches, etc. It has grown rapidly, and is in a flourishing 
condition. Population, 1870, 21,830; 1 880, 35,000; 1889, 50,000. 



CITY OF DAVENPORT. 




AVENPORT is a city in Iowa, opposite Rock Island, 111. It is situ- 
ated on the right (or west) bank of the Mississippi River, below 
the Upper Rapids, 183 miles west of Chicago. It is on the Great 
Western route from Chicago, and is the centre of numerous railroads. A 
large iron bridge, which cost $i,cxx),ooo, spans the river at this point, and 
connects the city with Rock Island ; it has railroad, carriage, and pedestrian 
accommodations. The scenery in this vicinity is unsurpassed on the North 
Mississippi, and the city, which is on a commanding bluff, affords a fine view 
of the river. 

The manufactures consist of cotton and woollen goods, agricultural imple- 




A VIEW OF DAVENI'ORT IN ITS EARLY DAYS. 



ments, flour, carriages, furniture, lumber, etc. It is situated in the midst of a 
fine agricultural district, and has a large trade with the surrounding country. 
It has a fine court-house, City Hall, gas-works, water-works, over 30 churches, 
schools, banks. Opera-house, a Catholic academy, seminary, hospital, and an 
Episcopal college. Coal is abundant in the vicinity, and an extensive trade 
is conducted by rail and water. Numerous fine buildings, erected by the 
United States Government, including the United States arsenal and military 
headquarters, are situated on Rock Island. Population, 1870, 20,038; 1880, 
25,000; 1889, 30,000. 



CITY OF OMAHA. 




MAHA is the principal city of the State of Nebraska. It is situated 
on the west bank of the Missouri River, opposite Council Bluffs, 20 
miles from the mouth of the Nebraska River, and 490 miles west 
by rail from Chicago. The name of the city is derived from one of the Indian 
tribes of Dakota. The city is built on a plateau about lOO f^eet above the 
river, and 1,000 feet above the sea. The place was laid out in 1854, and in- 
corporated in 1859. The capital of the Territory was first located at this 
point, but was afterwards removed to Lincoln. Omaha is the terminus of the 

Union Pacif- 
ic, the Omaha 
& Northwest- 
^ ern, the Oma- 
-j ha & South- 
,5! western, and 
'■■^ numerous 
other 



* ""^^ other rail- 
roads. It is 
- here that the 
Union Pacific 
and Central 
Pacific con- 
nect. The 
town was ori- 
ginally plan- 
ned on a scale that provided for the growth of a large city. Before the 
Union Pacific was constructed it was the great point at which emigrants 
arrived and fitted out for their overland trips to the " Far West." Its growth 
has been rapid. A bridge spans the Missouri, and connects the cit)- with 
Council Bluffs. It has extensive railroad shops, iron-works for the manu- 
facture of railroad iron, machine-shops, and smelting works for separating 
and refining all kinds of ore, which comes to Omaha from the various min- 
ing regions. The city has about 30 churches, several dail}' and weekly papers^ 
is lighted with gas and electricity, has numerous street railroads, schools. 




OMAHA AS IT WAS IN 187O. 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



is- 



hotels, residences and business blocks, a United States Post-office and Cus- 
tom-house, in which are the United States Court Chambers for the District 
of Nebraska; a large State Institution for the Deaf and Dumb. Its whole- 
sale trade is extensive, and rapidly increasing. Population, 1860,1,900; 1 870, 
16,083; 1880, 30,518; in 1885, 61,800; and 1889, 110,000. Lincoln has a 
population of 20,000. 



CITY OF COLUMBUS. 




OLUMBUS is a flourishing city, and the capital of Ohio. It is 
situated in Franklin County, on the Scioto River, which is a tribu- 
tary of the Ohio. It is about 100 miles northeast of Cincinnati, 
in the midst of an extensive plain. Its streets are wide and handsome, and 
shaded with elms. The squares and beautiful parks add much to its appear- 
ance. The city became the State capital in 18 16; to this and the other nu- 
merous State institu- 
tions the city for a ^i| 

long time owed its im- _^^_ ^_ - ,_-^,„ __„ ^- . ^, 

portance. But in late ---=.^^^^~ =1 ^ "^^-^^^ai 

years its manufactures 
have increased rapid- 
ly. They consist of 
carriages, agricultural B 





OHIO STATE CAPITOL. 



implements, furniture, ^^ 
niwir 
files, harness, brushes, 

printing establish- 
ments, extensive flour- 
mills and engineering 
works, rolling-mills, 
blast furnaces, tools, saws, watches, leather, window-glass, malleable iron, 
boots and shoes. In 1887 there were $190,000,000 invested as capital in the 
city, of which $35,000,000 were in railroads, $20,000,000 in the coal business, 
$20,000,000 in the iron industry, $18,000,000, in corporation manufacturing, 
and $8,000,000 in individual manufacturing. 



i86 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

The principal public buildings are the State Capitol (cost $1,441,675), 
the City Hall, the Penitentiary ($800,000), the new Government Building 
($500,000), the numerous asylums for the blind ($600,000), deaf and dumb 
($800,000), insane ($2,000,000), and idiotic, the Court-house, Opera-house, 
Alms-house, United States Arsenal ($400,000), high-school building, the Odd 
P'ellows' Hall, Post-ofifice, and the Ohio State University (property value, 
$1,200,000). Other attractions are the beautiful gardens of the Horticultural 
Society, numerous hotels, fine suburbs, horse-railroads, and Green Lawn 
Cemetery. It is the centre of fourteen lines of railroad, and its population 
and trade are rapidly increasing. Population, in 1870, 31,000; in 1880, 52,000; 
in 1889, 95,000. 



CITY OF TOLEDO. 



OLEDO is the county seat of Lucas County, Ohio. It is situated 
on both sides of the Maumee River, near the western extremity of 
Lake Erie, 92 miles west of Cleveland, and 53 miles southwest of 
Detroit. It was first settled in 1832, and incorporated in 1836. It has a fine 
harbor, and is well built. Its streets are broad and regularly laid out. It has 
very extensive railroads, which centre in one great union depot, and is the 
terminus of the Miami & Erie and Wabash & Erie Canals, together 700 miles 
in length. The local and transit trade is immense. It has 45 churches, a 
convent, three asylum.s, several lines of horse railroad, a water system which 
cost $1,000,000, a fire department and police system which are first-class, 
numerous fine hotels, banks, schools, a Free Public Library, numerous news- 
papers, and a Produce Exchange. Its commerce in one year was, in exports, 
$1,836,782; imports, $283,329. It has 10 grain elevators, which can store 
4,017,000 bushels. In one year the deliveries of grain amounted to 39,304,891 
bushels. The manufactures of the city are very extensive, and comprise 
carriages, wagons, iron, lumber, sash and blinds, railroad cars, moldings, 
steam-engines, boilers, pumps, bricks, etc. The wholesale trade is very im- 
portant, and the city is the centre of a large retail trade with the surround- 
ing country. Population, 1870, 30,731; 1880, 50,000; 1889, 110,000. 



CITY OF MEMPHIS. 




EMPHIS is a fine commercial city in Tennessee, and between St. 
Louis and New Orleans the largest one on the Mississippi. It is 
the capital of Shelby County, is 420 miles below St. Louis, and 
800 miles above New Orleans, is handsomely built on the fourth Chickasaw 
bluff, 70 feet above the highest floods, and is the outlet of a large cotton region. 
In 1880 the city had 138 manufacturing establishments, using a capital of 
$2,3i3-975» employing 2,268 hands, paying in wages $845,672, and yielding 
products valued at $4,413,422. By 1886 these establishments had increased 
to 300, and embraced several foundries, boiler and machinery shops, 1 1 saw 
and planing mills, and 10 cotton-seed oil mills, the latter having a capital of 
$1,000,000. During the season of 1885-6 the shipments of cotton aggregated 
430,127 bales, and between Sept. i, 1888, and Feb. 22, 1889, the receipts 
amounted to 464,255 bales. At the latter date the city had obtained the dis- 
tinction of being the largest interior cotton market in the United States. 
Ten railroads and forty steamboats contributed to her growing importance 
as a business centre in 1889. 

Memphis has fine public buildings, hotels, and theatres, 59 churches (of 
which 31 are for colored people), 3 colleges, 100 schools, 5 daily and 10 other 
newspapers, 10 banks, and several insurance companies; railways connect 
it with New Orleans, Charleston, Louisville, Little Rock, and all parts of 
the country. There is a Cotton Exchange, a Custom-house, a Chamber of 
Commerce, and a Board of Health. The latter have taken stringent meas- 
ures to prevent a recurrence of the yellow fever, which desolated it in the 
summers of 1878 and 1879. In the Civil War the city fell into the hands 
of the Federal forces in 1862, and was the base of military operations for 
the capture of Vicksburg, July 4, 1863. 

Owing to a variety of unfortunate circumstances which it is needless to 
recount here, the city defaulted in the payment both of the principal and in- 
terest of her debt on Jan. i, 1873. For six years her business men struggled 
under the burden and disfavor of the increasing indebtedness, and seeing no 
prospect of relief under the existing form of government they secured the 
passage by the legislature of a bill repealing the city charter and creating 
"The Taxing District of Shelby County " instead, in January, 1879. ^ ^^- 



i88 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 

ceiver was appointed the following month by one of the Federal courts under 
the provisions of the repealing act. He took charge of all city property, and 
was authorized to collect the sum of $3,000,000 of unpaid taxes, by garnish- 
ment or otherwise. While he was engaged in this collection, the State Supreme 
Court, on an appeal, decided that the repealing act was constitutional; and 
the United States Supreme Court decided that the action of the Federal court 
in appointing a receiver was erroneous. In 1881 the debt of the city, princi- 
pal and interest, amounted to $6,600,000. In rendering the decision cited, the 
late Chief Justice Waite, of the United States Supreme Court, affirmed that 
the " taxing district "was liable for the debts of its predecessor, on the ground 
that one corporation had succeeded another, and that payment could come 
onl)- through the levy of taxes on the existing corporation by the legislature, 
A\hich had sovereign jurisdiction in the matter. The new government pro- 
vided by the repealing act consists of a council of three commissioners and a 
board of public works of five, elected for terms of four years each, and serv- 
ing without compensation. Under this form of government the old debt has 
been settled and funded, one of the best sewage and drainage systems in the 
world established, taxation materially reduced, various local improvements- 
inaugurated, and the city restored to her former prestige and importance. 

The city is very picturesque when viewed from the river. The large 
warehouses along the bluff present a fine appearance. There is a fine park 
in the centre of the cit}-. The streets are regular and broad. There are 
numerous handsome residences, with fine lawns and gardens. The ri\'er is 
deep enough to float the largest ships. The trade of Memphis is about $75,- 
000,000 per annum. About 70 vessels of all kinds belong to the port. It 
is a progressive city, and is now looked on as the coming commercial centre 
of the Southwest. Population in 1870,40,226; 1880, 33,592; 1885, 45,000; 
1889, 75,000. 



CITY OF PETERSBURG. 

ETERSBURG is a port of entry of Virginia, on the south bank 
of the Appomattox River, 12 miles above its junction with James 
^ River, at City Point. It is 23 miles south of Richmond. Five rail- 
ways contribute to make it the third cit)' in the State in respect of popula- 
tion. Petersburg is well built. It contains churclics of the Prcsb}-terians, 




THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 189 

Methodists, Episcopalians, Baptists, and Catholics. There are here several 
cotton and woollen factories, forges, and numerous mills, to which the falls in 
the river furnish extensive power. In the campaign of 1864, Lieutenant- 
General Grant, commander of the Federal army, failing to take Richmond, 
besieged Petersburg, and was repulsed in several attacks by General Robert 
E. Lee, with heavy loss. Ample evidences of the operations in the vicinity 
are still to be seen. A leading point visited by tourists is the battle-field 
beyond Blandford church, where upon the brow of the hill, overlooking the 
ravine which separated the opposing forces, is the confused yellow mass 
known as the " Crater " or mine, which was tunnelled by Union sappers and 
miners, and blown up in order to effect a breach in the Confederate line of 
defences. Many relics may be found around this portion of the field still. 
One turns with relief from a contemplation of this scene to the beautiful old 
ruin of Blandford church, a mossy relic long before the struggle between the 
North and South. Its hallowed churchyard contains the tombs of the brav- 
est and best among the early people of colonial Virginia. 

Petersburg is the junction point with the Norfolk & Western Railroad 
leading to Suffolk and Portsmouth, opposite Norfolk. A side trip m.ay be 
made by this route to Fortress Monroe, which, together with Newport News, 
has grown into a great winter and spring coast resort. In journeying swiftly 
southward through the great pine forests of North Carolina the tourist 
begins to realize the balmy influence and delightful somnolence that betokens 
his approach to the land of spring. It is a temptation not to be resisted to 
open the window and lean contentedly back in a delicious dolce far niente, 
noting with listless interest the odd and amusing phases of life and types of 
Southern character to be seen at the railroad stations. Population in 1870, 
18,950; in 1880, 21,000; and in 1889, 25,000. 



CITY OF DENVER. 




ENVER, the principal commercial city and capital of Colorado, is 
situated on the South Platte River, 15 miles east of the Rocky 
Mountains. Six railroads connect it with various parts of the con- 
tinent. It is 5,203 feet above sea level, occupying several levels ascending 
gradually toward the mountains. It commands a grand view of peaks cov- 



IQO 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



ered with perpetual snow. Its commercial and manufacturing interests are 
making great strides, and its population is rapidly increasing. The climate is 
remarkable for its salubrity, and in winter the weather is generally mild. 
Between July and October there is scarcely any rain, and owing to the ex- 
treme rarity of the atmosphere Long's Peak (14,056 feet high), over 70 miles 
distant, Gray's Peak, (14,251), further south and opposite the city on the west, 
and Pike's Peak (14,216), 76 miles distant, can be clearly discerned from the 
city. In 1858 the place was uninhabited. Now there are numerous fine pub- 
lic buildings, various manufactories, numerous smelting and refining works, a 
United States Mint, and many solid business structures. Its growth is re- 







CITY OF DENVER. 



markable. It has six national and five other banks, and ranked next to 
Brooklyn (1889) as a city of churches, with sixty-seven. The Denver & Rio 
Grande Railroad has its eastern terminus here, and the Denver & South 
Park and Pacific Railroad connect it with Leadville, a city settled about 
1880, and having a population of 27,000 in 1889. Leadville is situated over 
10,000 feet above the sea, and is surrounded with rich silver mines, the product 
of which in one year was estimated at $10,000,000. The entire State is pre- 
eminently a mineral district, and to this owes its wonderful growth. In 
some parts of Colorado there are occasional storms of wind and hail ; 
otherwise, " an air more delicious to breathe cannot anywhere be found." The 
population of Denver in 1870 was 4,759; in 1880,35,000; and in 1889, 100,000. 



CITY OF CHARLESTON 




HARLESTON is the largest city and commercial emporium of 
South Carolina, and is one of the most important cities of the 
South. Columbia, which is situated on the Congaree River, 
130 miles from Charleston, is the capital of the State, and has a population 
of 12,000. Charleston, which is a fine ci'ty and seaport, is situated between 
the Ashley and Cooper Rivers, which here form a spacious harbor, extend- 
ing 7 miles to the Atlantic. The city occupies about 5^ square miles, and 
has a water 
front of about 
10 miles. The 
commerce con- 
sists mostly of ^^ 
exports. The ^^ 
foreign com- ^j 
m e r c e com- 
prises exports 
to the value 
of about $23,- 
000,000 annu- 
ally, and im- 
ports to the 
a m o u n t of 

$150,000; of the exports about $18,000,000 are in cotton. There is also a 
large commerce with the ports of the United States. The manufactures as 
compared with the commerce are unimportant. They consist principally 
of fertilizers from phosphates obtained in the vicinity. The wholesale trade 
in dry-goods, boots and shoes, hats, caps, clothing, etc., is extensive. There 
are 12 banks, and 3 railroads terminate here. There is also a canal which 
connects with the Santee River. 

An atmosphere of interest, such as attaches to no other city of the South 
will always seem perceptible to the stranger in Charleston. This is due to 
the important events that, forming the overture of a long and terrible war, 




CHARLESKJN. 




VIEWS IN AND AROUND THE CITY OF CHARLESTON, S. C. 

1. Institute Hall, 1801. 2. Characteristic Street Scene. 3. City Hall. 4. East Battery Promfiuaaa 

5. Entrance to Fort Sumter— registering names. 6. Inleriir of Fort Suii.ter 

7. Fisherman's Basin. 8. Fort Sumter. 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. i93 

had their scene of action here. The scars of those days are still visible in 
many portions of the city, and to a still greater extent down the harbor, 
where the shapeless heap of stone and brick still gathers the mold of Time, 
where the gallant band that held Fort Sumter passed through their " baptism 
of fire." A week may be well spent by a stranger amid the attractions of 
this charming and hospitable city. 

The battery, where many of the finest homes of the city front on the har- 
bor, is a shady, well-kept place. St. Michael's spire, always open to visitors, 
gives a superb view of the city and harbor, with the surf breaking beyond 
historic Morris Island. The Mount Pleasant & Sullivan's Island Ferry 
Company run frequent boats to Sullivan's Island, where Fort Moultrie stands. 
A small boat will take the curious stranger over to Fort Sumter. Just 
beside the gateway of Fort Moultrie, enclosed by a small iron railing, is the 
grave of Oceola the Seminole, who once figured so prominently in national 
history — an implacable, proud, thoroughbred Indian, who died a prisoner 
within these walls. Magnolia Cemetery is well worthy of a visit, with its 
graves of Gadsden, Rutledge, Pinckney, and Calhoun. The Magnolia Gar- 
dens, upon the Ashley River, about 20 miles from the city, form one of the 
most lovely spots in the South. It is reached either by the daily excursion 
steamers or by train. 

A pleasant side trip may be made from Yemassee, the junction of the 
Augusta & Port Royal Railroad, while en route between Charleston and 
Sav^annah to Port Royal and the ancient city of Beaufort ; the former has 
developed a large shipping trade within a few years, and the latter enjoys 
the advantage of a good hotel. Population of Charleston in 1889, 60,000. 




CITY OF SAN ANTONIO. 

AN ANTONIO is a city of Texas, no miles southwest of Austin. 
It is one of the oldest Spanish towns in America. No city in the 
Union is so peculiarly interesting as San Antonio. There are 
seven Catholic churches, in which services are held in the English, Spanish, 
French, German, and Polish languages. Mexicans jostle against Indians, and 
John Chinaman washes the linen of the commercial traveller. Visitors can 
eat at night on the plaza the strangely-made dishes prepared by the natives 
of Mexico. Strangers, while making purchases of curiosities in the shops. 










MEXICAN ANTIQUITIES IN SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS. 




PICTURESQUE FEATURES OF SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS. 



II 



196 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 



wonder at the massive thickness of the walls, and hear, with surprise, that 200 
years ago or more the Spanish troops found shelter there from the attacks of 

the Indians. It is a strange 
country, within five days' 
rail from New York, and 
when travellers pause there 
a little for rest, while en route 
to California and Mexico, 
they will find that it is un- 
necessary to visit Europe in 
quest of quaint old vestiges 
of a past generation. 

It is the seat of Bexar 
County, Texas, and is situa- 
ted on the San Pedro and 
San Antonio Rivers. The 
principal business streets are 
Commerce and Market, which 
run parallel from the princi- 
pal square. The business por- 




GARDEN STREET, SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS. 



tion has been mostly rebuilt 
since i860. About one-third 
of the population are Germans, 
and one-third Mexicans. It 
comprises three divisions, the 
city proper between the 
rivers ; Alamo, which is east 
of the San Antonio River; 
and Chihuahua, which is west 
of the San Pedro River. Al- 
amo is mostly occupied by 
Germans, while the Mexican 
quarter is in Chihuahua. In 

the city proper there are J^ - >--" -<;.^;--' — 

many fine business buildings. "*^ "°" -'^'^^ '^' 

In the Mexican quarter the '■'^''^ ^"^ '^^ ''^''^'' ''''''^'"'' ^"'"^'^ ^'^^^ antonio. 

houses are mostly built of stone and wood, and are only one story high. 




THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 



197 




There is a public park on the banks of the San Pedro. The city contains 
an arsenal, a Roman Catholic Cathedral, college, and convent, a Court-house, 
and banks. It is a centre of trade for the outlying country, the principal pro- 
ductions of which are wool, cotton, 
hides, and cattle. It has very im- 
portant and growing manufact- 
ures, and considerable water-power. 
The manufacturing industries in- 
clude extensive flour-mills, brew- 
eries, ice factories, etc. Invalids 
find the climate of San Antonio 
very desirable, as it is mild and 
genial. 

The city is now well provided 
with railroad connections. It is on 
the line of the International and 
Great Northern R. R., which is a oi'k'^a house, san antomo. 

part of the vast network of roads known as the Missouri Pacific Railway 
system, a fact which lends much significance to the future possibilities of the 
city. San Antonio is also touched by the Galveston, Harrisburg and San 
Antonio Railway and the San Antonio and Avansas Pass Railway. Railroad 

travel is rapidly introducing a 
new^ civilization into the midst 
of the life of the quaint old 
city, and the mingling of its in- 
congruous elements often fur- 
nishes scenes interesting and 
picturesque. 

The place was settled by 
the Spaniards in 1714. In the 
^f - Texan Revolution of 1836 it 

was the scene of the massacre 
MEXICAN jACAL. NEAR SAN ANTONIO. ^f ^j^g Alamo, whcn a garrison 

of 150 men, led by Colonel Travis, and including David Crockett, were sur- 
rounded by several thousand Mexicans, and, after a heroic resistance, killed 
to the last man. Population in 1889, 50,000. 




CITY OF JACKSONVILLE. 



ACKSONVILLE, Florida, is situated on the St. John's River. It 
is a flourishing city and the metropolis of the State. It is much 
resorted to by Northern invalids on account of the salubrity of its 
climate. In Jacksonville everybody seems on the move. Its street-corners 
are built up with hotels, and shops, and ticket-offices. It is a mart, and the 
sick man must needs partake of the excitement if he stops here. Perhaps he 
needs diverting; if so, let him stay. If rest is sought, he will do better to go 
up the river to some of the smaller points. Jacksonville has a score of 
hotels and a legion of boarding-houses. One-half of the population waits 
upon the other half. Bay Street, extending for a mile or more along the 
river, is built up closely, some of the structures being large and costly. 
The hotels are chiefly of wood, and those erected 1880-89 have all the ele- 
gance and conveniencies of the most noted metropolitan caravanseries. The 
population of the city in 1880 was i8,(X)o; in 1889 35,444. It is a growing 
city, and great excitement prevails in the winter, when the place is full of in- 
valids, not only from the North, but from various parts of the globe. 

In August and September of 1888 the city and vicinity were visited by 
the yellow fever scourge; many persons were stricken down w^ith it, and a 
large number died. Much suffering and privation were endured. The city 
was quarantined by the National Government in order to prevent the disease 
from spreading to other parts of the country. The inhabitants become 
frightfully alarmed and many left the city Camps were established to re- 
ceive the fugitives, where they were compelled to remain a certain length of 
time for purposes of fumigation before being allowed to proceed to other 
parts; much heroism and self-sacrifice were displayed by the people who re- 
mained in the city. All parts of the country generously responded with 
financial aid. Trained nurses and doctors from every part of the Union freely 
offered their services, which were cordially accepted. The most strenuous 
efforts were made to prevent the disease from spreading, but only the cold 
weather brought the needed relief. It is believed that the result of this terri- 
ble experience will be to cause the local authorities to put Jacksonville on a 
better health footing than it has ever before possessed, as the most thorough 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



199 



means known to science have been employed to prevent a repetition of this 
terrible epidemic. 

Tallahassee is the capital of the State, and has a population of 4,000; St. 
Augustine, 3,000. Key West is built on an island of the same name, and has a 
population of about 10,000. Pensacola has a population of about 7,000, which 
is about the same population as Fernandina contains. The productions of 
Florida consist of lumber, cotton, rice, cocoanuts, tobacco, sugar-cane, arrow- 




BAY STREET, JACKSONVILLE. 

root, hemp, flax, coffee, oranges, lemons, bananas, limes, olives, grapes, and 
pineapples, which grow in great quantities and are of very fine flavor. 
Among the other products may be mentioned Indian corn, beans, sweet 
potatoes, peas, Irish potatoes, barley, buckwheat, hops, etc. 

Many of the people of the State have grown wealthy on the cultivation 
and export of oranges and other fruits. The manufacture of what is known 
as " Key West cigars " is an important industry, and has done much for the 



200 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

people of Key West. Game and fish are to be found in great quantities in 
all parts of the State. In the forests, rivers, and swamps deer, wild turkeys, 
partridges, geese, ducks, and other game abound in great quantities. On all 
the coasts can be found green turtle, oysters, sheepshead, red fish, and mullet ; 
and in all of the inland waters can be found fresh-water fish in great variety. 
Sponges of a fine quality can be found in great quantities along the reefs, and 
are a considerable part of the trade. The pasturage of the savannahs is un- 
excelled, cattle requiring very little attention, and are seldom housed in the 
winter. Key West was nearly destroyed by fire in the spring of 1886. 




CITY OF WILMINGTON. 

ILMINGTON is the principal commercial centre in Delaware ; it is a, 
port of entry and the largest city in the State. It is situated at the 
junction of Christiana and Brandywine Creeks, 28 miles from Phila- 
delphia on the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore railroad, and is the 
terminus of the Wilmington and Reading, and the Wilmington and W' estern 
railroads. The buildings are mostly of brick, and the streets meet at right 
angles. Among the public buildings are the City Hall, Post-office, Custom- 
house, the Library and Institute, the Opera-house, and a large hospital. The 
city was first settled in 1730 and incorporated in 1832. It has about 50 
churches, numerous public schools, academies, banks, newspapers, a good fire 
department, police system, gas works, and street railroads. 

The manufactures consist of iron steamships, railroad cars, locomotives, 
carriages, paper, powder, agricultural implements, machinery, cotton and 
woollen goods, flour, boots and shoes, leather, and bricks, which are produced 
in great quantities. The annual products of the various factories have been 
estimated at $30,000,000. 

Wilmington is a very handsome city, and has many picturesque water 
views. Its commerce with local cities is extensive. Its foreign exports ai'id 
imi)orts are mostly conducted through Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New 
York. Population, in 1870, 31,000; in 1880, 42,500; in 1889, 57,000. 



1 



CITY OF MOBILE. 




OBILE'is the only seaport and the largest city of Alabama. It is situ- 
ated on a beautiful plain, on the west side of Mobile River, at its en- 
trance to Mobile Bay, which opens into the Gulf of Mexico. It is 141 
miles from New Orleans, and 180 miles from Montgomery, the capital of the 
State. The city, which is elevated 16 feet above the highest tides, rises gradually 
from the river, and is laid out with fine, broad, shaded streets. It was originally 
settled in 1702 by the French, and for years it was the most important place 
in the Louisiana district. It was visited by famines and by epidemics. At this 
period the - - - ^ ^- 

settlement T ^ " 
was located 
about eight |^ 




miles south 
of its present 
site. In 1706 
the women 
of the place, 
being dissat- 
isfied with In- 
dian corn as 

the principal ♦ ^ ^^^^^'^ i'^ MomLE. 

article of food, revolted. This was known as the " Petticoat Insurrection." 
The place was nearly destroyed in 171 1 by a hurricane and flood; the peo- 
ple then decided to move with their effects to a more desirable location, 
and selected the present site of the city. In 1763, at the Treaty of Paris, 
the city was ceded to Great Britain. After remaining in the possession 
of the British about 20 years it- was ceded to Spain. In the War of 1812 it 
was surrendered to General Wilkinson. It was incorporated as a city in 1819, 
and during the Civil War was in the possession of the Confederates. Admiral 
Farragut with his fleet sailed up Mobile Bay iii August, 1864, and the re- 
nowned engagement with the forts and the enemy's fleet took place on the 
5th; the latter was destroyed or captured, and the forts surrendered. The 



202 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 

remaining fortifications were carried by assault, and early in the following 
year the city surrendered. 

Mobile is lighted by gas and electricity, has numerous lines of street rail- 
roads, and several railroads connect it with all parts of the country. It has a 
fine Custom-house and Post-ofifice, City Hall and market-house, theatre, Odd 
Eellows' hall, cathedral, 30 churches, four orphan asylums, several hospitals, a 
medical college, St. Joseph's College (a Jesuit institution), a Convent of the 
Visitation, and academy for young ladies. Mobile has several ship-yards, foun- 
dries, and cotton-presses. The chief business is the export of cotton, timber, 
and naval stores. 

Mobile Bay is a handsome sheet of water, about 30 miles in length and 
about 12 miles wide; vessels drawing more than 16^ or 17 feet of water can- 
not reach the city except at high tide; but improvements were nearly com- 
pleted in 1889 to insure a depth of 22 feet and a width of 200 feet. Its cotton 
trade is only exceeded in the South by New Orleans, its exports of cotton for 
one year amounting to nearly $6,000,000, while its total exports were nearly 
$7,000,000; the imports are over $500,000 annually. There is a line of steam- 
ers between Mobile and Liverpool, and numerous vessels and steamboats 
engage in the river and coast-trade. Its traffic in naval stores and lumber 
is extensive. The city extends along the river five or six miles, and runs 
back about a mile and a half. Population, 1889, 40,000. 



CITY OF NASHVILLE. 



ASHVILLE, the capital of Tennessee, is situated on the Cum- 
berland River, 235 miles from its mouth, with steamboat navigation 
of over 400 miles above the city. It was made the State capital in 
1826. The State House is a very handsome building, built of Tennessee stone, 
quarried within 300 yards of the building. It is located on an abrupt emi- 
nence in the centre of the city. It is 112 by 239 feet, and is 206 feet to the 
top of t'ower. The corner-stone was laid July 4, 1845, ^^^^ ^^^^ occupied by 
the Legislature, October 3, 1853. The total cost was $1,500,000. The archi- 
tect and the chairman of the building committee were by act of Legislature 
honored with burial in vaults constructed within the walls of the northeast 
and southeast corners. 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 203 

Nashville is a handsome city, built on a series of hills affording ample 
drainage, and is noted for its enterprise, almost unparalleled growth since the 
war, and the culture and hospitality of its citizens. It is divided by the Cum- 
berland River, which is spanned at this point by a new iron truss bridge, 639 
feet long, 55 feet 7 inches wide, and double roadway. It has a very advanta- 
geous and well-arranged system of railroad facilities, and is the largest com- 
mercial city in the State. The amount of capital invested on January i, 1884, 
in the four leading cities in the State was $10,865,000, of which Nashville had 
$4,995,500, being nearly double either the others. There were 2,670 business 
firms and companies, of which 708 were engaged in manufacturing. The 
wholesale trade of the city gave employment to about 700 commercial trav- 
ellers. There were 120 incorporated companies and 10 street-car lines. 
There were em.ployed within the limits of the post-office carrier delivery — 
not including railroad shops — about 5,300 mechanics and skilled workmen. 
There are 3 cotton factories — one of which employs over 800 hands — and a 
woollen factory. This is the first hardwood lumber market in the United 
States, and the fifth general lumber market, having 25 saw and planing mills, 
and 33 firms engaged in the lumber business. It is the fifth boot and 
shoe market in the United States; the largest candy and cracker manu- 
facturing city in the South, and does an enormous wholesale dry-goods, gro- 
cery, and drug business. In stoves and hollow-ware, Nashville's manufact- 
ures have a good trade as far west as California and north to Chicago, and 
have recently secured profitable Government contracts in competition with 
the best Northern and Eastern houses. Its flouring mills have a daily capac- 
ity of about 1,800 barrels. It has a fine electric fire alarm and about 200 
Brush lights. The local telephone exchange has 2,100 miles of wire in the 
■city, supplying 1,300 telephones within the city limits, besides giving connec- 
tion with 132 towns in Middle Tennessee. There is a fine electric time sys- 
tem, furnishing standard time from a central clock, with a service of 375 
clocks, and is rapidly increasing. The banking capital in national banks is 
$3,100,000, besides several private banks. The individual deposits in the 
national banks average over $4,000,000. The latest taxable valuation of 
property gives $570 to each inhabitant. The iron interests of the South are 
largely controlled here, one concern alone representing $10,000,000 capital 
employed in making coke and iron in Tennessee and Northern Alabama. 

An eminent geologist and mineralogist has said, that " if a circle were 
drawn around Nashville with a radius of 120 miles, and paths made to each 



204 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 

degree of the circle, no of them would pass over inexhaustible and easily 
available deposits of iron." 

Among the prominent public buildings are the Court-house, 3 universities, 
hospital. Custom house and Post-of¥ice, county jail, market-house, 2 theatres, 
a Masonic Temple, an Opera-house, State penitentiary, Free academy, 
Protestant and Catholic orphan asylums; 64 churches, of 12 denominations, 
47 white and 17 colored; 47 daily, weekly, and monthly publications. The 
educational facilities are unsurpassed in the South. The Fisk University for 
colored teachers was founded in 1867, the Central Tennessee College for col- 
ored students in 1866, and the Vanderbilt University, named after the late 
Commodore Vanderbilt, in 1875. The Nashville Medical College and numer- 
ous other institutions, including a State and Public Library, the Roger 
Williams University, academies, seminaries, private schools, and business 
colleges, adorn the city. It has an extensive public-school system, with lO' 
large buildings accommodating 6,000 white children, and 4 buildings accom- 
modating 2,000 colored children. The value of public school buildings is- 
$230,000. Near the city are the State Lunatic Asylum, and the " Hermitage," 
once the residence of President Jackson. Nashville was occupied by the Fed- 
eral troops in 1862, and here the Federal General Thomas gained a victory 
over the Confederate General Hood in December, 1864. 

The city is noted for its handsome private residences. A very extensive 
system of water-works supplies the city with pure water from the river. The 
place was first settled in 1779; incorporated as a city in 1806. Population 
in 1870, 25,865 ; 1880,43,000; 1889,85,000. 




CITY OF SAVANNAH. 

AVANNAH is a fine city and port of entry of Georgia. It is situ- 
ated on the right bank of the Savannah River, 18 miles from its 
mouth, and 90 miles from Charleston. It is greater than Mobile 
or Charleston as a port of commerce, and it is the largest port for shipment 
of naval stores in the United States. The principal trade of the State cen- 
tres at this point, and consists mainly of cotton, rice, and lumber. Great 
facilities are afforded b)- the Savannah River for internal commerce. A 
canal, 16 miles long, connects this ri\-cr with the Ogeechee River. Nearly 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 



20S 



i,ooo vessels enter and clear the port annually, with an aggregate tonnage of 
nearly 1,250,000. 

Savannah is the bcaii-idcal of an old-time Southern town. The visitor will 
fall in love with the shady vistas of the streets, and remember with pleasure 
the parks set with monuments that alternate the squares. Bonaventure 
Cemetery is at once the saddest, yet most charming spot one will encounter 
in a year of travel. The great live-oaks stretch their witch-like arms and join 
hands across the avenues, while from every branch and twig, like drapings of 
woe, depends the long and swaying Spanish gray moss. The Savannah hotels 
are large and well kept. The visitor will find a great deal at the rooms of 

the Georgia _ 

Historical So ^ J 

ciety to interest ^ff= J' ^ 

him. The scenes 

amongtheware- _^ 

houses and clus- ~^; 

tersof shipping jUg.4, 

are extremel}' 'T'^ Ar\v|-..ii::| 

animated. 

Savannah is 
the t e r m i n a 
station of sev- 
eral railroads. 
The climate is 
very pleasant 

in winter, and is not considered unhealthy at any season. The city has a 
fine harbor, and the river is navigable as far as Augusta. It is built on a 
sandy plain, 40 feet above the river, with broad streets shaded by beautiful 
trees. Its chief edifices are the Custom-house, City Exchange, Court-house, 
State Arsenal, theatre, St. Andrews' hall, Oglethorpe hall, market, three hos- 
pitals, asylums, and Masonic Hall, where in 1861 the ordinance of secession 
^\■as passed. The exports are about $50,500,000, consisting of cotton, rice, 
lumber, etc. The cotton exported annually amounts to 850,000 bales; im- 
ports, $1,000,000. Vessels of upward of 22 feet draught discharge and load 
three miles below the harbor. 

Savannah is surrounded by marshes and islands, and on the river side is 
■defended by Forts Pulaski and Jackson. It was founded in 1733 by the 




A VIEW OF SAVANNAH IN FORMER DAYS. 



2o6 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

English General Oglethorpe. In 1776, a British fleet, attempting to take the 
town, was repulsed after a severe action; but it was taken in 1778, and held 
in 1786 against the combined French and American forces. In the late war, 
after many unsuccessful attacks by sea, it was taken by General Sherman in 
February, 1865. As a cotton port it is subordinate to New Orleans only. The 
manufactures are not important, and consist of the products of foundries, 
planing and flouring mills, and a large cotton-mill. 

In the park is a Confederate monument; and in Johnson Square an obelisk 
to the memory of General Greene and Count Pulaski. The Pulaski monu- 
ment in Monterey Square is 55 feet high, of marble, surmounted by a statue 
of Liberty, and is considered one of the finest works of the kind in the Union. 
The city has 35 churches, a Public Library, Historical Society, several banks, 
and an excellent school system. It has had two great fires, one in 1796 (loss, 
$1,000,000), the other in 1820 (loss over $4,000,000). Its police and fire de- 
partments are very efficient ; the latter is now a paid department, reinforced 
by " call men." 

In Georgia the tops of the hills are mostly covered with forests of pine, 
oak, palmetto, ash, hickory, cypress, black-walnut, cedar, and mulberry. The 
agricultural products of the State are cotton, wheat and other grain, maize, 
tobacco, sugar-cane, indigo, rice, etc. Cotton is one of the great articles of 
commerce, as is also tobacco, indigo, canes, timber, maize, and deer-skins. 
The population of Savannah in 1880 was 33,000, and in 1889, 52,827 — 29,136 
white, 23,691 colored. 




CITY OF ATLANTA. 

TLANTA is a port of entry, a fine city, and the capital of Georgia. 
It is called the " Gate City." It is destined to be a city of great 
importance, as it is the terminus of all the railroads of the State. 
There is little of the conventional South about Atlanta. The energy, per- 
sistence, and phenomenal growth of this city have won for it the sobriquet of 
the " Chicago of the South." Its streets are laid out, or perhaps we should say 
wander, with a freedom from relation to the cardinal points of the compass, 
which should make Boston envious; but they are bright, wide, and shady 




■MMMI 



CITY OF ATLANTA. 



I, ii'once de Leon Spring. 2. U. S. Custom House and Post Office. 3. In the Commercial Quarter. 
4. Union Depot. 5. Peachtree Street. 



2o8 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

streets. There is not a prettier avenue anywhere in the land than Peach-tree 
Street, which bears the same relation to Atlanta that Euclid Avenue does to 
Cleveland. The surrounding country, besides being rich in grain and cotton, 
contains gold, iron, and other valuable minerals. 

The large negro population and the heavy traffic in cotton are almost the 
only features which proclaim Atlanta as a Southern centre. As the city has 
been chiefly rebuilt since the war, the prevalent styles of architecture are 
modern and pleasing. The United States Custom-house and Post-office is a 
handsome structure in the heart of the city. Upon Washington and other 
leading streets there are many large and costly churches of several denomina- 
tions. 

Atlanta was destroyed by General Sherman, November, 1864. After the 
war Atlanta speedily recovered from her almost complete ruin, and within two 
years had as great a population as when the war began. It became the 
capital of the State in 1868. Among the public institutions are the Ogle- 
thorpe University, the Clark Theological School (colored Methodist), the North 
Georgia Female College, the Atlanta Medical College, the Atlanta University 
for colored students, the State Library, Young Men's Library, and the State 
Technical School. 

From the high ground occupied by the McPherson barracks, in the north- 
western portion of the city, a very fine outlook upon the city's environment 
may be had. Not far away is Kennesaw Mountain, the scene of much san- 
guinary fighting, and away to the north are the pale outlines of the Tennessee 
mountains, famed through the names of Lookout, Mission Ridge, Chicka- 
mauga, and Chattanooga. Within the limits of the city and in its immediate 
vicinage are many huge yellow mounds, portions of the cordon of defences 
which extended around the city, upon ^\'h^ch the grass has never grown. 
Atlanta is built on an elevated plateau, 1,100 feet above tide-water, and is 
singularly dry, cool, and healthy. 

Atlanta, unlike her sedate sister cities of the South, owes her rapid growth 
..'.and commercial importance to her favorable position and her great spirit of 
enterprise. Her railroads have direct lines to all sections of the country. 
In the last ten years it has grown rapidly, and gi\'en great impetus to the new 
industries of the South. It has vast cotton-mills, and immense iron rolling- 
mills; these give employment to a large number of persons. Population, 
1889, 75,000. 




CITY OF ROCHESTER. 

OCHESTER is a commercial city and port of entry, situated on both 



sides of the Genesee River, 7 miles south of its entrance into Lake 
Ontario. It is the capital of Monroe County. It is 230 miles from 
Albany. It is located on an elevated site, which covers about 17 square miles. 

Its streets are shaded, and generally from 50 to 100 feet wide. It is the 
terminus of the Rochester & Pittsburg and numerous other railroads. It is 
crossed by the Erie Canal and the New York Central Railroad. Owing to its 
advantageous situation it has grown very rapidly; by means of the Genesee 
it has easy access to the lakes, while its railroads and canals give it communi- 
cation with the fertile country by which it is surrounded ; besides, it has an 
immense advantage in water-power. The numerous falls of the Genesee 
River within its boundaries amount to 268 feet in perpendicular height. The 
upper falls of the Genesee, a cataract of 96 feet, are in the centre of the city; 
a mile or two below are two other falls, one 84 feet and the other 25. The 
river runs through a deep gorge 210 feet high. As a result of this immense 
water-power it has become one of the principal markets of the flour trade, 
and has some of the largest flour-mills in the Union, besides numerous other 
extensive manufacturing establishments. 

Rochester was settled in 18 10, and incorporated as a village in 18 17. It 
was first laid out by Nathaniel Rochester, an American pioneer. It was in- 
corporated as a city in 1834. The city is very handsome and well built. The 
canal crosses the river on a fine aqueduct containing seven arches. Main 
Street is the principal thoroughfare and promenade. It is in the centre of 
the city, and crosses the river, which is spanned by a substantial bridge. 

Among the principal buildings may be mentioned the County Court-house ; 
the City Hall, with a tower 175 feet high; the high-school building, the Powers 
block, and the Warren Astronomical Observatory, the finest private observa- 
tory in the world. The University of Rochester occupies large buildings in 
the eastern part of the city. It was founded by the Baptists in 1850, and the 
grounds, consisting of 23 acres, are beautifully laid out. There are about 70 
churches, a fine public-school system employing over 200 teachers, nearly 50 
public and private schools, a theological seminary, an athenaeum, hospitals, 
and reformatory. The nursery trade of Rochester has assumed vast pro- 
portions, and is not surpassed by that of any other place in the world. 



2IO GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

Mount Hope Cemetery is beautifully laid out, and is an ornament to the 
city. The population of Rochester was, in 1820, 1,502; in 1840, 20,191; in 
1860,48,243; in 1870,62,386; in 1880, 89,363; and in 1889, 125,000. 




CITY OF UTICA. 

TICA is a city of New York and county seat of Oneida County. 
It is situated at the junction of the Erie and Chenango canals on 
the Mohawk River. It is 95 miles west-northwest of Albany. 
The city, regularly and handsomely built, rises from the south bank of the 
river on a gradual elevation, the ground generally being level. Among its 
buildings are a City Hall, United States Court-house and Post-of^ce, opera- 
house, public halls, 34 churches, large hotels, banks, cotton-mills, woollen-mills, 
a State Lunatic asylum, Catholic and Protestant orphan asylums, academies^ 
and schools. There are 1 1 newspapers and periodicals, of which 2 are Welsh 
and I German. In 18 13 it had a population of 1,700. It was incorporated as 
a city in 1832. At the period of the Revolution Utica was a frontier trading- 
post, and the site of Fort Schuyler, built to guard the settlements against 
the French and Indians. 

It is connected with various parts of the country by the New York Cen- 
tral, the Utica & Black River, and the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western 
railroads. Its principal business street is very handsome, and contains fine 
substantial blocks of buildings. It impresses a stranger with being a live, 
active place. It covers an area of four square miles; has numerous public 
parks, a public library, and a mechanics' association ; is the centre of a 
rich dairy and farming district; and is the largest cheese market in America. 
Its manufactures consist of clothing, steam-engines, boots and shoes, pianos, 
agricultural implements, cotton and woollen goods, carriages, carpets, etc. 
Population, 1880, 34,000; 1889, 50,000. 



CITY OF GALVESTON. 

jALVESTON is the most important commercial city and seaport in 
Texas. It is situated in a county of the same name on Galveston 
Island, at the opening of Galveston Bay into the Gulf of Mexico. 
Its harbor is the finest in the State; it has 14 feet of water over the bar at 




I 




GALVESTON, 



212 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 

low tide. The bay extends north to the mouth of Trinity River, a distance 
of 35 miles, and is 12 to 18 miles wide, and is a very handsome sheet of water. 
The island of Galveston is 28 miles in length, and from two to three miles 
wide. Its average elevation above the sea level is only 5 feet. The streets of 
the city are straight, spacious, and elegant; and its principal buildings — the 
Roman Catholic University of St. Mary's, the Roman Catholic Cathedral, 
and the Episcopal Church — are large, imposing edifices of brick in the 
Gothic style. Galveston has 18 churches, two libraries, a convent of Ursu- 
line nuns, a medical college, an orphan asylum, hospitals, over 10 miles of 
street railway, and a number of schools of various kinds. It has railroads 
connecting it with all parts of the country, and is connected by steamship 
lines with Liverpool, New Orleans, New York, and the coast towns of Texas 
as far as Mexico, and by sailing vessels with countries in Europe, Mexico, 
the West Indies, and South America. The principal trade is the shipping 
of cotton (over 40 acres of ground are devoted to cotton presses and ware- 
houses), hides, grain, pork, and beef. The foreign exports in one yeai 
amounted to nearly $18,000,000, and the imports to about $1,000,000. The 
city has good wharves, several ship-building yards, foundries, machine-shops, 
gas-works, railroad shops, daily and weekly newspapers, savings and national 
banks, etc. The island of Galveston was, from 181 7 to 1821, the haunt of 
the pirate Lafitte, who was dislodged in the latter year. Population in 1870, 
13,818; 1880,26,000; 1889,47,500. 



CITY OF DAYTON 




AYTON is one of the most prosperous and wealthy cities of Ohio. 
It is situated at the junction of the Miami and Mad Rivers. It is 
connected with Cincinnati, on the Ohio, by the Miami Canal — the 
distance being 52 miles. In the variety and extent of its manufactures Day- 
ton stands foremost among Western towns in proportion to its size. Fine 
water-power is supplied by the river. The population has very rapidly in- 
creased. In 1850 it amounted to 10,976, having almost quadrupled within the 
preceding 20 years; in 1853 it had risen to 16,562, showing an addition of 
more than 50 per cent, in three years; in i860 it amounted to 20,482; 1870 to 
30,473; in 1880 to 38,000; and in 1889 to 46,800. It owes its prosperity chiefly 
to the great number of railroads centring here, among which are the Atlantic 
& Great Western; the Cincinnati, Hannibal & Dayton; the Cleveland, Col- 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 213 

umbus, Cincinnati & Indianapolis; the Dayton & Union; the Pittsburgh, 
Cincinnati & St. Louis and several others. It has a fine Court-house, a Pub- 
lic Library, several newspapers, 53 churches, the National Home for Disabled 
Soldiers and Sailors, situated in fine grounds, and other institutions. Many 
of the private residences are very handsome, and have elegant grounds. 
The streets are broad and well paved, and include ^6 macadamized roads 
with a total length of over 600 miles, radiating from the centre to the suburbs. 
The city is in the midst of a rich agricultural district, in which limestone 
quarries abound; had 7 national banks and one savings bank with an aggre- 
gate capital of $2,930,000, and 8 insurance companies with a capital of $1,200- 
000, in 1889; and its educational interests were promoted by a high school, 15 
public schools. Cooper Seminary for Young Ladies (Presbyterian), St. Mary's 
Institute for Boys (Roman Catholic), and a preparatory school for boys. 




CITY OF WHEELING. 

HEELING is the largest city of West Virginia, a county seat, a 
port of entry, and the capital of the State. It is situated on 
the left bank of the Ohio River, at the entrance of Wheeling 
Creek, 60 miles by rail and 92 by river, below Pittsburg. It is the largest 
commercial city between Cincinnati and Pittsburg on the Ohio River. It 
extends 5 or 6 miles along the river on both sides of the creek. The city is 
built at the foot of the hills which rise to the Alleghanies, and is the termi- 
nus of the Baltimore and Ohio, and of the river division of the Cleveland 
and Pittsburg, and numerous other railroads. The great national road here 
crosses the Ohio, over which is a wire suspension bridge, 1,010 feet long. 

Its manufacturing establishments are very extensive, and consist of iron 
foundries, glass works, blast-furnaces, forges, machine shops, paper-mills, cigar 
factories, flour-mills, ship yards, etc. About 500 vessels belong to the port. 
Large quantities of bituminous coal are mined in the hills in the vicinity. 

The public buildings consist of the Custom-house, Post-ofifice, and United 
States Court Chambers, which are combined in one; the State-house, the 
Opera-house, and Odd Fellows' Hall. There are 8 public schools, two semi- 
naries, 22 churches, a public library, a college for women, and several chari- 
table institutions. It is the centre of an important trade. The place was 
first settled in 1772, and incorporated as a city in 1806. Population in 1870, 
20,000; in 1880, 31,000; in 1889, 37,000. 



CITY OF READING. 




EADING is a city of Southeast Pennsylvania, on the left bank of 
the Schuylkill River, 58 miles northwest from Philadelphia, 55 miles 
northeast of Harrisburg; it is at the junction of the Union and 
Schuylkill Canals. Three fine bridges span the river. It was originally set 
off by Thomas and Rich Penn in 1748, and incorporated in 1847. The 
streets cross at right angles, and the city is handsomely laid out. The busi- 
ness portion contains fine buildings, erected with great regularity. It is the 
centre of a very productive farming district, and has a considerable wholesale 
and retail trade. It has a handsome Court-house, an Academy of Music, a 
jail, several hotels, banks, well-organized police and fire departments, nu- 
merous fire insurance companies, a public library, a Catholic academy, 
numerous public and private schools, a Catholic hospital, and several chari- 
table institutions. It is pleasantly situated on an ascending plain, and is 
supplied with streams of pure water from a mountain behind it. Penn's Mount 
is on the east and Neversink Mountain on the south. 

It publishes 12 newspapers. Its industries are rolling-mills, blast-furnaces, 
machine-shops, saw-mills, foundries, shoe factories, breweries, tanneries, rail- 
road shops, manufactories of cigars, cottons, woollens, flour, nails, bricks, 
paper, etc. 

It has an extensive trade in coal. Population in 1870, 34,000; in 1880, 
43,300; in 1889, 51,000. 




SALT LAKE CITY. 

ALT LAKE CITY is the capital of Salt Lake County and of Utah 
Territory. It is situated at the foot of the Wahsatch Mountains, in 
an immense valley, 4,350 feet above the sea level, on the east bank 
of the River Jordan, between Lake Utah, which is a beautiful bod}' of fresh 
water, and Great Salt Lake, the latter being 12 miles distant. The city is con- 
nected with Ogden, the junction of the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific 
Railroads, by the Utah Central Railroad, the distance being 36 miles. It is 
supposed that the vallc}' in w hich Salt Lake City is situated was in prehistoric 



I 



2i6 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

times a sea, which oy convulsions of nature has been changed from its original 
level. The soil still holds in solution the salt of the sea. The streets are 128 
feet wide and shaded with trees, and cross at right angles, forming 260 squares 
of 10 acres each. Two streams of pure water from the neighboring mountains, 
some of them 10,000 feet high, flow through each street. The city is divided 
into 21 wards, each of which has a public square or common. No drones 
are permitted in the city, as the Mormons are very industrious. They never 
seem to tire of work or making converts to their faith, and bring large num- 
bers of converts from all parts of Europe. 

The "City of the Saints" was founded in 1847 by the Mormons, after a 
long and weary pilgrimage through forests and a wilderness that was far more 
extensive than that traversed by the descendants of Abraham after escaping 
from the bondage of Egypt. The dwelling-houses are chiefly built of adobes, 
or sun-dried bricks. Since the National Government has taken polygamy in 
hand polygamous wives are less numerous. The houses were generally built 
one story high, and were small ; but latterly many elegant residences have 
been erected. Each little dwelling is surrounded by its garden and orchard. 
The plates from which was written the Book of Mormon were " discovered " in 
1827 by Joseph Smith, who founded the "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- 
Day Saints " in Manchester, N. Y. The church was afterwards removed to 
Ohio, Missouri, Illinois, Iowa, and finally to Utah. The church system of gov- 
ernment is admirable, as it considers the interests of all, and were it not for the 
practice of polygamy, there could be little objection raised to the Mormons, 
who are only carrying out the doctrines of the Old Testament. The adminis- 
tration of the Edmunds law, passed by Congress in 1882, and which was fol- 
lowed in 1886 by a still more stringent measure (which dissolved and wound 
up the corporation of the Mormon Church, disposing of its property), put 
hundreds of Mormons in prison for terms varying from six months to three 
years, and made the practice of polygamy almost impossible, but it has seem- 
ingly neither destroyed nor shaken the Mormons' faith in the divinity of the 
principle of plural marriages. In 1889 President Cleveland pardoned several 
of the Mormon leaders then under sentence for polygamous practices. 

The principal business streets are Main, South Temple, and First South 
streets, upon which there are several fine business blocks. Over one-fifth of 
the population are Gentiles and apostate Mormons, and since the laws of the 
United States against polygamy have been so rigorously enforced the latter 
are increasing. The city, which is not very imposing in appearance, is lighted 



1 







ll)y)jj|iM))i)lli» I I) iimmn iiimjui 



2l8 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 




with gas, and has numerous lines of horse railroads. The great Mormon 
Tabernacle, which is located on Temple Block, cost $150,000, and seats 13,000 
people. There are Catholic, Episcopal, Presbyterian, Methodist, and Con- 
gregational churches, a Public Library, Museum, City Hall, University, banks, 
hotels, halls, theatres, graded schools, newspapers, and periodicals. The city 
revenue amounts to about $175,000 annually; its debt, contracted to dig a 
•canal for irrigation, etc., amounts to $225,000; its resources are more than 

$1,500,000; licenses 
for liquor selling cost 
$1,200 per annum 
for -each dram-shop. 
Several railroads, 
J placing Salt Lake 
City in communica- 
tion with all princi- 
pal points, tend to 
increase its commer- 
cial importance. The 
Utah Southern, the 
Utah Western, and 
the Utah Central, 
centre in Salt Lake 
City, and the L^nion 
and Central Pacific, 
the Denver and Rio 
Grande railroads, 
•connect with the city the two former having junctions at Ogdensburg and 
the latter by way of Provo City. The Denver and Rio Grande Railroad has 
opened up a very picturesque section of the country. 

Salt Lake City is a growing centre of trade for the mining and agricultural 
•districts. It is 650 miles from San Francisco, and 1,100 west of the Missis- 
sippi. The "Warm Springs, which issue from a limestone rock at the foot 
of the mountains, are about one mile distant from the city, and are consid- 
ered very beneficial to bathers. The Hot Springs are about a mile from this 
point. Population in i860, 8,236; 1870, 12,854; 1880, 22,000; and in 1889, 
.30,000. 




MAIN SIKKET, SALT LAKE CI lY. 



CITY OF RICHMOND. 




^ICHMOND is the capital of Virginia and a port of entry. It is sit- 
uated on the north bank of the James River, at the head of tide- 
water, about 150 miles from its mouth. It is 100 miles south of 
Washington, and picturesquely situated on the Richmond hills on the lower 
falls of the river. A trip from Washington to Richmond leads through the 
storied district of Virginia; first along the broad Potomac, crossing numerous 
tide-water creeks and affording many pleasant outlooks, then to historic Fred- 
ericksburg, where the tide of war surged so fiercely, and on through the 
rolling, well-tilled country, passing frequent villages, at one of which, Milford, 
a stop is made for meals, and then through Ashland, with its venerable col- 
lege buildings, beyond ,v 
which it is a short run to 
Richmond. 

The opportunity to 
visit and familiarize one- 
self with the many inter- 
esting historic points in 
the famous capital of the 
late Confederacy is one 
which is eagerly seized by 
nearly all intelligent pleas- 
ure travelers going South 
for the first time, and thus it happens that there is a very general interchange 
of passengers at this point. One day devoted to the city of Richmond for rest 
and relaxation will suffice to give an intelligent idea of this centre of the 
great struggle. A half day of pleasant driving through the broad and shady 
streets of the city to Hollywood Cemetery, one of the most beautiful places 
of sepulture in the land, would be a source of much pleasure and entertain- 
ment. A monument of great interest is that which marks the grave of 
President James Monroe. Here also lie the remains of General J. E. B. 
Stuart, who commanded Lee's cavalry during the civil war; while hundreds 
of Confederate dead rest within the cemetery. A drive to Libby Prison, and 
the score of lesser points famous in connection with the war, will prove a 
pleasant and instructive lesson of travel. 




STATE CAPITOL. 



220 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 

The city is regularly laid out and built, and surrounded with beautiful 
scenery. The fine Capitol Square, located in the heart of the city, contains 8 
acres. Within the bounds are found the prominent and shapely structure of the 
State House, and the famous Washington Monument, as well as the statue of 
Stonewall Jackson. Among the manufacturing establishments, which give 
employment to nearly 6,000 hands, are large iron-works, machine-shops,, 
foundries, sugar refineries, flour-mills, carriage-shops, tanneries, tobacco and 
cigar factories. The Tredegar iron-works, covering 15 acres, were employed 
for the manufacture of cannon during the existence of the Confederac}', and 
are now among the most important iron-works in the country. The flour- 
mills are among the largest in the world. There are 10 insurance companies, 
4 national banks, and 6 state and saving banks. Richmond was founded in 
1742, and became the capital of the State in 1779. In 181 1 the burning of a 
theatre destroyed the lives of 70 persons, including the Governor of the State. 
It was here that the convention to ratify the Federal constitution met in 1788, 
and it has since been the scene of many great political gatherings. On 
the 17th of April, 1861, the State of Virginia seceded from the Union, and 
in July following the Confederate Congress met in Richmond, and made it 
the capital of the Confederacy. General Joseph E. Johnston at this time had 
60,000 Confederates under his command in Virginia, and from this time till 
the close of the war Richmond continued to be one of the principal points of 
attack by the Federal army under Generals McDowell, McClellan, Burnside, 
Hooker, Meade, and Grant. It was defended by General Lee with a large army 
and formidable lines of fortifications, till the seizure of the lines of supply 
by Generals Grant and Sheridan compelled its evacuation after a series of 
sanguinary battles, April 3, 1865. During the evacuation of April 3, 1865, 
over 1,000 houses in the business portion of the city were destroyed; the loss 
of this and other property destroyed amounted to over $8,000,000. Imme- 
diately after the close of the war rebuilding Avas begun, and proceeded rapidly. 
The celebrated military prisons known as Castle Thunder and Libby Prison 
were long used as tobacco warehouses. The former was burned several years 
ago, and in 1889 the latter was removed to Chicago, where it was re-erected 
on Wabash Avenue precisely as it appeared in its original location. It is now 
used as a great museum in which thousands of relics of the civil war are 
exhibited. In St. John's Episcopal Church the Virginia Convention which 
decided the attitude of the Colony in 1775 was held. Here Patrick Henry 
made his celebrated speech ending — " I know not what course others may 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 221 

take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!" The convention 
which ratified the Federal Constitution was also held in this church in 1788. 

The business section has solid and handsome structures. The private 
residences are mostly surrounded by fine lawns and gardens. The river has 
much picturesque scenery. The State Library contains about 50,000 vol- 
umes and many fine historical portraits. The Custom-house and Post-office 
occupy a fine granite structure. Near the Medical College can be seen the 
Brockenbrough House, which was occupied during the war by Jefferson Davis 
as his official headquarters. 

Numerous lines of railroad intersect at Richmond. Regular lines of 
steamers connect the city with Norfolk, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New 
York. Since the recent improvements in the river, vessels drawing 19 feet 
of water can load and unload at the docks. A canal round the falls gives a 
river navigable 200 miles, and a canal and several railways enhance its com- 
mercial importance. Population in 1889, 85,000. 




CITY OF KEOKUK. 

EOKUK is situated in Lee County, Iowa, on the west bank of the 
Mississippi River near the mouth of the Des Moines River, and at 
the foot of the lower rapids. From its advantageous position as 
a port of delivery it has received the name of the " The Gate City." It is built 
on a bluff of limestone that rises to a height of 150 feet; the buildings are 
chiefly of brick, and those of a public character embrace a medical college, 
law school, six large public school houses, built of brick at a cost of $125,- 
000, a United States court, a public library, gas works, and extensive water 
works. For a city of its age and population it made a remarkable showing 
in the last census year (1880). Its freight and passenger traffic was handled 
by seven lines of railroad ; its banking business showed a large increase over 
that of the preceding year; its jobbing business approximated $20,000,000 in 
extent; its retail trade gained from forty to fifty per cent, in a year; and its 
manufacturing interests received a decided boom. Among the latter it 
counted 3 pork-packing establishments, 2 railroad machine shops, i railroad 
car shop, 4 wagon factories, 3 foundries, 2 stone quarries, 3 breweries, 13 cigar 
factories, 3 marble works, 2 lime kilns, 3 brick yards, 2 planing-mills, and a 
saw-mill, fruit-canning establishment, woolen hose, chain pump, furniture, 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 225, 

soap, flour-sack, shirt, and broom factories, and the usual variety of manu- 
factories of articles required for domestic use. Fifty-three business houses 
and residences were erected at a cost of over $300,000, besides an opera house 
that cost $45,000 and a pubHc Hbrary that cost $20,000; and various pubHc 
improvements were made that represented an additional outlay of $38,000. 
In the same year 852 conveyances of real estate were made, the aggregate 
consideration for which was $492,881. 

The city is best known in commercial circles, not only in the West but 
along all the great arteries of trade and transportation of the country, as a 
port of delivery and transshipment. A brief study on the map of its loca- 
tion and railroad and water connections will at once establish its importance. 
For many years the great obstruction to freight traffic which the lower rapids 
caused, was recognized as a matter of general importance. Not only the 
growth of the city, but the business necessities of a vast section of territory 
were held in check thereby. Great as was the desirability of overcoming this, 
obstacle, the cost of any permanent improvement of this part of the river 
was estimated at a figure far beyond the ability of the city or State or both 
combined to pay. The demands of commerce, however, were loud, continu- 
ous, and imperative, and as the improvement was destined to yield much 
more than a local benefit, the general government very wisely took the matter 
in hand, and constructed a canal around the rapids, deep enough to accom- 
modate steamboats, 9 miles in length, and with an average of 300 feet in 
width, and provided it with the necessary locks and basins. This improve- 
ment, carried out under the direction of the United States engineer corps, 
cost the government $8,000,000, and beside yielding an incalculable benefit to 
the whole commercial interests of the West, gave Keokuk an admirable water- 
power for manufacturing purposes. The population of the city has grown as 
follows: 1850, 2,478; i860, 8,136; 1870, 12,766; 1880, 12,117; 1885, 13J51; 
1889, 15,000. 



CITY OF ST. AUGUSTINE. 

T. AUGUSTINE the first place within the Hmits of the United 
States settled by white men, is a city, seaport, and capital of St. 
John's County, Florida. It is situated on a bay of the Atlantic two 
miles from the ocean, is 30 miles south of the mouth of St. John's River, 80 
miles south of St. Mary's, 170 miles east by south of Tallahassee, 310 miles 




224 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 



south of Charleston, and in latitude 29° 45' north and longitude 81° 40' west. 
It has an attractive and spacious harbor, and ample railroad, steamboat, and 
steamship connections with northern and local points of importance. The sit- 
uation is pleasant, and has the advantages of refreshing breezes and the deli- 
cious fragrance of orange groves. The city was built on a peninsula and in 
ol)long form, with four principal and narrow streets. The houses as a rule 
were two stories in height, the first story being constructed of a conglomerate 
of fine shells and sand called coquina, and abounding in large quantities on 
Anastasia Island at the entrance of the harbor. This material is easily 
quarried and manipulated, and possesses the property of hardening on exposure 




THE OLD GATE, ST. AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA. 

to the air. The second stories were of wood and projected over the first in a 
strikingly quaint fashion. The chief feature of the town till within a few years 
was a large public square which fronted the harbor, and was surrounded in 
true Spanish style by the various public buildings and the venerable Roman 
Catholic cathedral. 

Since the close of the civil war it has become a very popular winter resort 
and stopping-place for northern people owning orange groves in Florida; 
and the knowledge of its extreme age, the tenacity of its permanent residents 
for everything ancient, and its remains of early Spanish works of defense, 
have made it exceedingly attractive to experienced tourists. The United 
State government has built a substantial sea-wall along its harbor side, which 
forms one of the most delightful promenades to be found anywhere. Modern 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 225 

domiciles have sprung up here and there, and there have been a few attempts 
to provide it with some of the improvements and accommodations of the 
day; but in all essentials it is still only the oldest remains of the Spanish 
power in America, and such its citizens are content to have it known and 
continue. Its permanent population was less in 1880 than it was in 1821, 
even with the addition of the Indian prisoners removed to the old fort from 
Fort Sill and the Cheyenne agency in Indian Territory. 

While in the possession of the Spaniards, St. Augustine was considered a 
place of much strategic importance, and as it had St. Sebastian River on one 
side and St. Augustine Bay on another, they built a stone wall across its 
northern end and regarded that as a sufificient protection. Later on, how- 
ever, a fort was built with walls 20 feet high and 12 thick, in which 36 guns 
were mounted. The old wall had quite an ornamental gateway with towers 
and curious loop-holed sentry boxes. This wall has now totally disappeared, 
but the gateway has been preserved, and even the contour of the original ex- 
ternal ditch, which was broad and deep and extended from water to water. 
The gateway, the cathedral, and ruins of many of the early coquina houses 
now constitute the real curiosities of the place, though the old fort, at once 
an Indian prison and school-house, receives a fair share of admiration. 

Concerning its antiquity as a settlement, it may be briefly narrated that 
the famous Ponce de Leon, he who searched the world in vain for the foun- 
tain possessing the power of restoring youth, landed there on Palm Sunday, 
March 27, 15 12, and, as the ground was covered with flowers, called it " Pascua 
Florida." He took possession of the country in the name of Ferdinand and 
Isabella, and then set sail for the mysterious island, Bimini, and its magic 
fountain. No permanent settlement was made there till 1565, when Don 
Pedro Menendez founded a town and called it St. Augustine. His early ad- 
ministration was historically marked by the massacre of several hundred 
Frenchmen who had surrendered themselves prisoners of war. In 1567 the 
town was captured and destroyed by the adventurous Huguenot, Dominique 
de Gourgues, as a retribution for the treachery shown his countrymen ; but 
Menendez immediately rebuilt it and ruled there till 1577. Sir Francis 
Drake sacked and burned it in 1586, when it had attained considerable size 
and population — probably more than it has since had. It was again rebuilt, 
and again burned in 1665, this time by Captain Davis, an Englishman. There 
is a tradition that between these dates it was also destroyed by Indians, but 
proof on this point is not conclusive. After Captain Davis's raid it must 




HAMPTON, VA., AVITII OLD POINT COMFORT, THE NATIONAL 
soldiers' HOME, AND THE NORMAL AND AGRICULTURAL IN- 
STITUTE. 



GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 227 

have been rebuilt more substantially than before, for in 1702 an English ex- 
pedition against it, led by Governor Morris, of South Carolina, was success- 
fully repulsed. Governor Oglethorpe, of Georgia, also proceeded against it 
in 1740, and though he beseiged it a long time failed to occupy it. A second 
expedition, which he led in 1743, provided with the best means of attack then 
known and composed of men of picked determination, was likewise repulsed. 
It thus remained in the possession of Spain till the cession of the territory of 
Florida to the United States in 1821. During the civil war it was seized and 
occupied a short time by a Confederate force, being regained by the Union 
troops. In 1875, at the suggestion of General Sherman, a body of refractory 
Indians was separated from their comrades on the plain and sent as prisoners 
to the old fort, renamed Fort Marion, for exemplary punishment. They still 
remain there, and under the direction of the Federal government are being 
educated and taught the manners and employments of peaceful life. 

In 1821 the population of the city was 2,500; in 1870, it had fallen to 
1,717; and in 1889 it was 5,000. 



CITY OF HAMPTON. 




AMPTON, though small in area and population, is large in the amount 
of its social and historical interest. It is the capital of Elizabeth 
County, Va., and is situated on the north side of Hampton Roads, 
at the mouth of James River. It is three miles west of the famous Fortress 
Monroe, and eighteen miles north northwest of the city of Norfolk. The very 
mention of its location arouses vivid reminiscences of many stirring events 
isx the civil war. Several naval expeditions were fitted out by the Federal 
authorities at Fortress Monroe; but the chief event was the destruction of 
the United States war vessels Oimberland and Congress by the Confederate 
iron-clad steam ram Merrimack, assisted by the steamers Jamestozvn and York- 
tozvn, in Hampton Roads, where a large Union fleet was at anchor, on March 
8, 1862, and the novel and unexpected engagement between the Merrimack 
and the first Union iron-clad, the Monitor, on the following day. The re- 
sults of this first battle between iron-clad vessels led the Union and Confed- 
erate authorities to construct others on the same general plan, and set all 
European naval powers to work overhauling their costly wooden frigates and 
building new ships on the American plan. 



228 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

Hampton has a good harbor for vessels of light draft, opening into the 
Roads. Its chief attractions, all out-growths of the civil war, are the national 
cemetery, the National Home for Disabled Soldiers, shown in the centre of the 
illustration, and the normal and agricultural institute, founded' originally for 
the education of freedmen's children and subsequently utilized by the Federal 
government for the education of a number of its young Indian wards. The 
buildings and farm are shown at the bottom of the illustration. The city 
contains 5 churches, has manufactories of bricks, fish-oil, and other articles, 
enjoys a considerable trade in fish, oysters, and garden products, and is visited 
annually by a large number of tourists, beside the hosts that pass the season 
of fashionable recreation at Old Point Comfort, shown at top of illustration, 
which has become a very popular resort, and possess an unrivalled bathing 
ground along its beach. The permanent population was estimated in 1870 at 
2,300; 1889 at 2,800. 




CITY OF PORTLAND, OREGON. 

ORTLAND, the metropolis of Oregon and of the Pacific northwest 
as well, is situated on the Willamette River twelve miles above its 
junction with the Columbia, fifty miles north of Salem, the capital 
of the State, 122 miles by river from the Pacific ocean, and 530 miles north of 
San Francisco, and in latitude 45° 30' north and longitude 122° 27' west. It 
was originally staked out by two men, Messrs. Lovejoy and Overton, in 1843, 
practically settled in 1845, and incorporated as a city in 185 1. With the excep- 
tion of the great fire of August 2, 1873, when over $1,000,000 worth of prop- 
erty in its heart was destroyed, it has met with uninterrupted and substantial 
prosperity. The city extends from the river back to a range of abrupt hills, 
a distance of one mile, and along the river, which is bordered with spacious 
wharves, warehouses, and mills, nearly three miles. It is the first city in 
point of wealth, proportionally to size, in the United States; is the seat of 
an extensive and rapidly increasing wholesale trade and the supply point of 
the great Columbian region; and has a direct commerce with the leading 
Asiatic ports and the Pacific islands. 

The city is regularly and beautifully laid out; the number of palatial resi- 
dences, encircled by richly ornamented grounds, strike the visiting stranger 
with astonishment; and the great solid and handsome business blocks of 



230 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 

brick and iron give an idea of wealth and commercial activity rarely met in 
so young a place. Many of its business blocks would adorn the busiest thor- 
oughfares of any thrifty city. Its churches bespeak a toleration of religious 
opinions and a worthy denominational zeal, and its educational and charitable 
institutions testify to a quickened intelligence, refinement, and beneficence. 
To the tourist it has two permanent charms, the vaew of the eternal snows on 
Mounts Hood and St. Helen and on the farther peaks of Rainier and Adams, 
and the pleasant steamboat sails down the Willamette and up the broad 
Columbia to the Cascades and the Dalles, or down to Astoria, resting on piles 
by the water side, like a picturesque lacustrine village of Switzerland. The 
city has many miles of costly streets and avenues, large gas and water works, 
and ample street railroad service, and is lighted by gas and electricity. 

Portland is a city of churches and schools. It had 26 churches of differ- 
ent denominations in 1889, and its public and other schools were attended by 
9,000 pupils. The public schools are organized on the graded system, and 
sustained with great liberality by a public tax voted by citizens in annual 
school meetings, beside the quota derived from the public school fund of the 
State. The Protestant Episcopal Church has a number of private schools of 
a higher order for young ladies and gentlemen, and the Roman Catholic 
Church maintains a boarding-school, an academy, and a college, beside a 
number of parochial schools and and other educational institutions. There 
are also numerous private schools of an exceptionably high standard. In the 
line of denominational charity, the Protestant Episcopal Church supports 
the Hospital and Orphanage of the Good Samaritan, and the Roman Catholic 
the Hospital of St. Vincent. With the educational interests of the city 
should be included the Portland. Library, an incorporated and flourishing in- 
stitution, possessing over 15,000 volumes of standard works, and advantages 
that meet with general appreciation. 

During 1887 the value of the various products of Oregon and Washington 
Territory that passed through Portland for direct export to foreign countries 
amounted to nearly $20,000,000, and during the same period the city did 
a wholesale and retail trade of over $45,000,000. It had six banking institu- 
tions with an aggregate capital of $3,000,000; three lumber and numerous 
planing mills; 5 iron foundries, turning out the heaviest kind of work; several 
carriage, furniture, boot and shoe, and harness factories; world-renowned 
salmon fisheries and canning establishments; and large interests in wool and 
cattle raising. Nearly all the commerce of the Columbia River region is trans- 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 231 

acted at Portland, and includes on an average 8,000,000 pounds of wool per 
annum, valued at $2,000,000, and 10,000,000 bushels of wheat worth as many 
dollars, beside shipments of hops, vegetables, fruit, oats, lumber, and many 
other articles that must aggregate nearly or quite $25,000,000 more; and this 
trade increases at a ratio that is governed by the progress and development 
of the whole region north of California and west of the Rocky Mountains. 

Portland owes its wonderful prosperity, first, to its location on the river 
at a point accessible by ocean steamships, thus giving it all the material ad- 
vantages of a seaport while over 100 miles inland; second, to the fact that it 
is the natural depot for the shipment of the various products of the fertile 
Willamette and Umpqua valleys and the vast salmon product of the Colum- 
bia River; and third, to the remarkable development of the northwestern rail- 
road system. Its population in 1861 amounted to 2,917; the census of 1880 
gave it 17,500; a local census in 1882 enumerated 20,000 whites and 5,000 
Chinese; and a careful estimate in 1887, which included East Portland, on the 
opposite side of the river, destined to become incorporated with it shortly, 
showed a total of 45,000. 



CITY OF DES MOINES. 




ES MOINES, the capital city of Iowa, is beautifully situated in Polk 
County near the centre of the State and on both sides the Des 
Moines River, where it receives the waters of the Raccoon River. 
Its location gives it a large commercial and manufacturing importance. Each 
river has a width of about 600 feet within its limits and both unite in an eight- 
foot fall, which provides an admirable water-power. Beneath and for a con- 
siderable distance around the city are coal veins of great richness and extent, 
giving- employment to over 2,000 persons. The surrounding territory, easily 
accessible by railroad, is a high-grade agricultural region. Fifteen railroads 
and branches have stations in the city, thus giving it exceptional facilities for 
shipping its manufacturing, industrial, and agricultural products, and bring- 
ing it in close connection with other prominent business sections. It is 88 
miles from Fort Dodge, 138 from Omaha, 161 from Keokuk, 174 from Daven- 
port, and 357 from Chicago. The present prosperity of the city is due first 
to its natural location, and second to its railroad advantages. 

In 1880 there were 155 manufacturing establishments within its corpo- 



232 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES; 

rate limits, conducted on a capital of $1,463,250, employing 1,378 hands, pay- 
ing $667,699 in wages, and yielding products valued at $4,220,709. The 
chief industries, as indicated by the value of products were: wholesale 
and jobbing trade, $10,700,000; grain and produce, $2,665,000; pork, $2,- 
465,000; spirits, $500,000; tobacco, $179,500; foundries and machine shops, 
$176,000; tin and sheet iron works, $174,000; and flour-mills, $156,000. The 
barbed-wire industry reached a productive value of nearly $200,000, and the 
local mines gave an output valued at $1,055,840. The same year its citizens 
spent $1,000,000 in erecting 650 residences, $340,000 in business structures, 
and $405,000 in churches, educational establishments, and municipal buildings. 

In 1889 Des Moines contained a United States court house and post-office 
that cost $250,000; the State arsenal with its precious treasure of civil war 
battle-flags; Drake University; Des Moines University; Callaneau College 
for young ladies; public, district, and high schools; State, public, and city 
libraries ; 3 opera houses ; 5 national banks with an aggregate capital of 
$850,000, 5 State banks with a capital of $400,000, and 4 loan and trust com- 
panies with a capital of $753,000; and 51 churches divided among the lead- 
ing denominations. The chief glory of the city was the new State Capitol, the 
building that towers in the back-ground of the illustration. This grand 
monument to architectural skill stands on an elevation of 120 feet above the 
Des Moines River, covers an area of 58,850 feet of ground, and cost with its 
furniture $3,500,000. It has a dome at each of its four corners, and a central 
one that rises to a height of 275 feet above the ground. The stone work of 
the building is chiefly granite and marble, and twenty-nine varieties of the 
latter were used in its construction and ornamentation. The building is one 
of the most substantial and imposing in the country. 

The city is well drained, provided with water by the Holly system, is 
lighted with gas and electricity, has four lines of horse cars connecting its 
business centre with the suburbs, and is supplied with a steam fire depart- 
ment. 

The site of Des Moines was a part of the reservation of the Sac and Fox 
Indians, which the Federal government acquired by treaty in 1842. A tract 
of 160 acres having been ceded to the State in 1846, the legislature organ- 
ized Polk County, and after much contention Fort Des Moines, as the settle- 
ment was then called, from the name of the United States military post, was 
chosen the county seat. The first survey was made in July, 1846, the town 
was incorporated in 1853, was selected by the legislature as the capital of the 



THEIR ORIGIN AND WONDERFUL GROWTH. 233 

State instead of Iowa City, the first capital, in 1854, and was chartered as a 
city with the word Fort expunged in 1857. It was not till August, 1866, that 
railroad connection with the outer world was established. The construction 
through it of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific railroad gave it its first 
great boom, and its citizens have since been alert in utilizing every means that 
could conduce to its advancement. Population, 1870, 12,035; 1880,22,408; 
1889, 38,000. 




CITY OF PRINCETON. 

RINCETON, famous the world over for its institutions of learning, 
is in Mercer County, N. J., about midway between New York and 
Philadelphia, and three miles from the main line of the Pennsyl- 
vania Railroad, It is an ancient city, its settlement dating back to about 
1700, and possesses a great wealth of historical associations. The streets are 
broad, with a beautiful expanse of charming lawns and spreading trees, and 
disclose many magnificent residences. In 1746 the College of New Jersey 
was founded at Elizabeth, N. J., by royal charter, and remained there till 
1757, when from a variety of causes it w^as removed to Princeton, where it 
has since been maintained. In point of age it is thus the third college in the 
United States, The grounds now cover nearly 70 acres, and the principal 
buildings, erected on the crest of a steep hill, command superb views of a 
natural panorama. Nearly all the buildings, of which there were twenty-six 
in 1889, are built of stone, and many of them display great architectural 
beauty, with their environments of unsurpassed lawns. Nassau Hall, the 
oldest in the cluster, was dedicated by Governor Belcher to the memory of 
King William III., who belonged to the royal house of Nassau, When com- 
pleted it was the largest building in the colonies. It long sufificed for all 
college purposes, was used as barrack and hospital by both the British and 
the American forces in the Revolutionary war and was frequently a target 
for cannon balls, and is now devoted to the celebrated museum of paleon- 
tology with its work-rooms and laboratories. The other buildings of note are 
the Chancellor Green Library, erected 1872 at a cost of $125,000, and con 
taining over 70,000 volumes; Dickinson Hall; the Halstead Observatory; 
Murray Hall; Marquand Chapel; the Art Museum, containing the almost 
priceless collection of ceramics presented by William C. Prime; and the Bio- 



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236 GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

logical Laboratory. During the presidency of the Rev, James McCosh, D.D., 
LL.D., Litt.D., 1868 to 1888, twelve new buildings were erected and $3,000,000 
were contributed to the college. This patriarch of learning, on resigning 
from age, was succeeded by the Rev. Francis Landey Patton, D.D., LL.D., 
philosopher, professor, theologian, and native of Warwick, Bermuda. 

Next to the College of New Jersey, Princeton takes justifiable pride in its 
Theological Seminary, founded in 18 10, the largest and oldest Presbyterian 
divinity school in the United States. Besides these institutions there are 
three classical schools and two very popular schools for the exclusive instruc- 
tion of young women. With the venerable Nassau Hall, the various modern 
college and seminary buildings, the ornate residences, the quaint old colonial 
houses, the wide shaded streets, superb lawns, and magnificent trees, Prince- 
ton presents a very unique appearance, a tasteful commingling of the very 
old and the very new. It is a quiet place, as befits its seeming mission, a 
centre of intellectual pursuits and reflection, a university town in all but 
name. Princeton is equally interesting for the scenes of national progress 
enacted there. It was occupied by both contesting forces at times during 
the Revolutionary war. In 1783, when the exigencies of military movements 
necessitated the flight of the Continental Congress from Philadelphia, it ad- 
journed to Princeton and resumed its sessions in the library room on the 
second floor of Nassau Hall. But before this the soil of Princeton was torn 
and reddened in the conflict of arms. Washington's success at Trenton on 
December 26, 1776, recalled Lord Cornwallis to New Jersey from his projected 
departure for England. Washington moved stealthily from the Assanpink 
at Trenton on the night of January 2, 1777, and directed his main army 
toward Princeton, with the intention of giving battle to the British troops 
remaining there, and of seizing their supplies at New Brunswick. On the 3d 
Washington struck the rear of Cornwallis's army near Stony Brook. Both 
armies manoeuvred to gain a rising ground in the vicinity. The Americans 
succeeded, but were driven away by the bayonet. Washington rallied his 
troops, opened artillery fire, drove the British in retreat toward Trenton, 
pushed into Princeton, where he defeated a British regiment, compelled the 
surrender of another regiment that had sought safety in Nassau Hall, burned 
bridges to prevent the approach of Cornwallis's main army, and pursued the 
retreat of the rest to New Brunswick. Population: 1870, 2,798; 1880, 3,209; 
1889, 3,940. 



THE 
ORBAT REPUBLIC 



OF 



THK WKST: 

ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 



INTR0DaGri0N. 



The Great Repttblic of the IV est. 

By BENSON J. LOSSING, LL.D. 

EXTENDING in a broad, irregular belt across the continent of 
North America between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, is a. 
Republic composed of a group of Forty-Two independent but never 
sovereign States : Six organized Territories : a District which is the 
Seat of the National Government, and an Indian Territory. In the 
far northwestern part of the Continent, and separated from these 
States and Territories by British possessions, is Alaska, a vast region, 
which also forms a part of the Great Republic of the United States oi. 
America. 

This Republic lies between latitude 24° 20' and 49° north, and 
longitude 10° 14' east and 47° 30' west of the meridian of Washington,, 
the political capital of the Nation. It is between longitude 66° 48'" 
and 124° 32' west from Greenwich, England. It comprehends an area, 
including Alaska (577,390 square miles), of three million, six hundred 
and ninety square miles, and had, in 1888, a population of fully 66,000 
000 human beings. It is favored by almost every variety of climate, 
soil, and productions, and is charmingly diversified by immense and 
beautiful lakes, rivers, mountains, and plains. 

The Government of the United States is Republican, and em- 
braces three great branches, namely : the Legislative, the Judicial and 



238 INTRODUCTION. 

the Executive. The first makes the laws, the second construes them, 
and the third enforces them. 

The National Government is alone sovereign. All the States are 
subject to it, through the operation of the National Constitution, which 
is the fundamental law of the Republic. It alone has the power to 
coin money ; create and control an army and navy ; declare war and 
conclude peace ; negotiate, conclude, and enforce treaties, and perform 
all other functions of absolute sovereignty. To it the several States 
owe perpetual allegiance. 

I present, in "The Great Republic of the West" a compendious 
and separate history of the several States and Territories of this 
Republic, as concisely as lucidity will allow, arranged in the chrono- 
logical order in which they were first permanently settled and or- 
ganized into provinces, territories, and states. In this order the com- 
monwealth of Virginia leads the grand procession. 

By a careful perusal of these Sketches the reader may acquire a 
clear conception of the character, variety, and combined strength of 
the materials used in the building of our Great Republic. 

The publishers intended to insert in the foregoing narrative the por- 
trait of the first gover7ior of each State and Territory. They have 
succeeded in obtaining the likenesses of nearly all of them. When, 
after diligent and persistent efforts they failed to obtain them, the 
portrait of some person distinguished in the history of the State or 
Territory which suffers such omission, has been inserted. If hereafter 
such portraits shall be obtained, they will be inserted in their proper 
places. 

" The Ridge," 
Dover Plains, N. Y., Oct. ist, 1889. 



(1607.) 




This, the oldest of the commonwealths that formed the 
original thirteen States of our Republic, is one of the 
Middle Atlantic States. It lies between latitude 36° 31' 
and 39° 27' north, and longitude 75° 13' and 83° 37' west, 
from Greenwich. On its borders are Maryland, West 
Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, and the 
Atlantic Ocean. The area of the State is 42,450 square miles. In popu- 
lation, according to the census of 1880, Virginia ranks fourteen among the 
States and twenty in the value of both agricultural products and its manu- 
factures. The population was then 1,512,565, of whom 631,707 were colored. 
No State in the Union presents a greater variety of surface and climate 
than Virginia. Its mountain regions are exceedingly picturesque, and its soil 
in its valleys, and in its plains near the sea, is very fertile ; while its mineral 
treasures of various kinds are abundant. The State is topographically 
divided into five regions, namely: the Lower or Tide-water, the Piedmont, 
the Valley, the Alleghanies and Trans-Alleghanies. 

The Tide-water District comprises about thirty-seven counties bordering 
on the Atlantic Ocean and Chesapeake Bay. 

The Piedmont region is at the foot of the mountains, and embraces 
about thirty-two counties. It is more elevated than the Lowland district, 
with a diversified surface and genial, healthful climate; and is one of the 
most attractive regions in the Union. 

The Valley District lies between the Blue Ridge on the East and the 
Alleghany Mountains on the West, and traverses the entire length of Virginia 
for about three hundred miles. It comprises the Shenandoah Valley and 
South Branch, made famous by stirring events during the late Civil War. 
This Valley region is renowned for its fertility. It was originally settled by 
English, German, Scotch and Irish, who by intermarriage produced a hardy 
race. The Valley District embraces about eight thousand square miles. 



.240 



THE GREAT RKPUBLIC OF THE WEST 



The history of Vir^ini;i is cxcoodiii^ly iiitoicstiii^^ from the beginning. 
I'^rom some sliipwrccked liuguciiots making their way from their asylum from 
persecution, in (present) South Carolina, to their homes in Europe, the 
Biilish Ouccn ICli/.abeth heard of the beautiful land on the Southern coasts 
•of {\\v Atlantic toward the region of 1^'lorida, which the Spaniards hail dis- 
•covereil ; and British navigators and adventurers were stirred with strong 
■desires to visit that region. Among the skillful navigators of England was 
Sir Humphrey Gilbert, who obtained a patent for establishing a plantation in 
America. Mis rich young kinsman, Walter Raleigh, who at seventeen years 
•of age had ft>ught for the Huguenots, in l''rance, and afterwards in the 




rATKICK IMCNRY, KIKSI' C.OVKUNKK OV VIKCINIA. 

Netherlands, joined him in tlu- enterprise. They sailed for America in 1579, 
but were turm-d back by a heavy storm and an encounter with Spanish 
cruisers. 

Raleigh became a gay favorite at tlu> court of Fdizabeth, who lavished 
favors upon him; and he obtained another palc-nt for (lilbert. Raleigh tur- 
nished n\eans t\tr litling out live ships, witli which (ulbert sailed, first to 
Newfouiullaud ami then for the Southern coasts. Off the shores of Maine 
the little sipiadron was dispersed and lost it\ a storm. Gilbert perished and 
only one vessel nturned (o (ill tlu- dreadliil tale. 

Raleigh was not disheartened. In 1 S^^l. Ih' sent two ships which entered 
an inlet on the coast of (present) North C.irolina. The men explored Tamlico 
and Albermarle Sounds.'discovered Roanoke Island, and took possession of 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 241 

the whole region in the name of their Virgin Queen. As a memorial of her 
unmarried state, Raleigh gave the name of Virginia to the region. He at- 
tempted to colonize the country, but failed. His money became exhausted, 
having spent fully $200,0CX) in these schemes, and he abandoned the enter- 
prise. 

Other English adventurers were stimulated to efforts to plant colonies 
in the warmer coast-region of North America. Soon after the accession of 
James I., King of England, war between that country and France ceased, and 
there were many restless soldiers out of employment. They endangered 
social order. There was also a class of ruined and desperate spendthrifts 
ready to do anything to retrieve their fortunes. 

Among adventurous men of character in England at that time were Fer- 
dinando Gorges, Bartholomew Gosnold, Chief Ju.stice Popham, Captain John 
Smith, Richard Hakluyt, and others. Gorges and Gosnold were friends of 
Raleigh, and all were imbued with his spirit in the cause of American coloni- 
zation. They were not deterred by his failures. 

Richard Hakluyt, a skillful cosmographer whom Raleigh had appointed 
one of the company of adventurers for colonizing Virginia in 1589, and who 
had published narratives of voyages in French and English, incited several 
friends of Raleigh and others to petition King James to grant them a patent 
for planting colonies in North America. At that time there was not an 
Englishman to be found in America, and only one permanent settlement 
north of Mexico, that of St. Augustine, in F^lorida. The petition was gladly 
received by the King, and he granted letters patent (April 10, 1606) to Sir 
Thomas Gates, Sir George Somers, Richard Hakluyt, Edward Maria Wingfield 
and others, of a territory extending from latitude 35'^ to 45*"^ N., together with 
all the islands in the ocean within one hundred miles of the coast. The object 
was declared to be to " make habitations and plantations " and to form colo- 
nies by sending English people into that portion of America commonly called 
Virginia, with a hope of Christianizing and civilizing the pagans there. 
This was called the London Company. 

The Territory was divided into North and South Virginia. A similar 
charter was granted to another company for the purpose of colonizing the 
northern portion of the Territory. It was called the Plymouth Company. In 
1602 Bartholomew Gosnold was sent with a few colonists to the coasts of 
Maine and Massachusetts, but failed to plant a permanent colony. Gosnold 
soon afterward organized a company for colonizing the Southern district 



242 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

of Virginia, the boundaries of which were fixed between latitude 34° and 38^ 
north. A charter was granted him and his associates, April lO, 1606, the 
first under which the English ever settled in America. Gosnold sailed, 
December 19, 1606, with one hundred and five adventurers, in three small 
vessels, commanded by Captain Christopher Newport. 

Gosnold intended to plant his colony on Roanoke Island, but a tempest 
drove the little squadron into Chesapeake Bay, where they found good anchor- 
age. The capes at the entrance to the bay Newport named Charles and Henry, 
in compliment to the sons of James I. The company landed, and rested after 
their perilous voyage on a point of land at the mouth of (present) York and 
James rivers, which Newport named Point Comfort. They sailed up the 
larger stream, called by the natives the "river of Powhatan," named it James 
River, and landed on its left bank about fifty miles from Point Comfort, and 
there planted the seed of the colony of Virginia. It was not very produc- 
tive, for among the adventurers were only twelve laborers, and the remainder 
were mostly gold seekers. 

The most notable man among the adventurers was Captain John Smith,. 
who, by his arrogance, had excited the jealousy and suspicions of his fellow 
passengers, and, charged with conspiring to usurp the government of the 
colony and make himself King, was placed in confinement. It was not 
known who had been appointed rulers of the colony, for the silly monarch 
had placed the names of the colonial council in a sealed box to be opened on 
their arrival. It was found that Smith was one of the council, when he 
was released. 

The place where the adventurers landed was a pleasant spot, heavily 
timbered. It was really an island, for there was an oozy marsh between it 
and the mainland. They hung an awning made of an old sail between three 
or four trees, to shelter them from the sun. Under that shelter the Rev. 
Robert Hunt, the pastor of the colony, preached a sermon and invoked the 
blessings of God upon the undertaking. Then, in the warm sunshine and 
among the shadowy woods and delicious odors of wild flowers, the sound of 
the metal axe was first heard in Virginia. This first Christian Church in the 
wilds of America was walled by wooden rails ; the pulpit was a bar of wood 
nailed to two neighboring trees, and the seats were unhewed trees. 

"This," wrote Captain Smith, "was our church till we built a homely 
thing, like a barn set upon crotches, covered with rafters, sedge and earth. 
The best of our houses were of little curiosity, but, for the most part, of far 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES, 245 

worse workmanship, that could neither well defend wind or rain. Yet we 
had daily common prayer, morning and evening, every Sunday two sermons, 
and every three months communion, until our minister died," They built 
log-houses; and so was constructed the first capital of the colony of Virginia, 
which they named Jamestown, 

The colonists chose Wingfield president of the council, who proved un- 
faithful. The King had prepared a code of laws for them, in which kindness 
to the Indians, regular preaching of the Gospel, and teaching the Christian 
religion to the pagans were enjoined; also providing for the well-ordering of 
the community. 

The restless Smith, with others, ascended the James River to the Falls,^ 
at the site of Richmond, and made the acquaintance of Powhatan, the Em- 
peror of several tribes of Indians. Newport returned to England early in 
June for supplies and more emigrants. The supplies which they had brought 
were spoiled by the long voyage, and the barbarians around them appeared 
hostile. The marshes near them sent up poisonous vapors; and before the 
end of the summer after their arrival Gosnold and fully one half of the 
adventurers died of fever and famine, 

Wingfield lived on the choicest stores, and was preparing to sail to the 
West Indies in a pinnace left by Newport, when his treachery was discov- 
ered, and Ratcliffe, a man equally unworthy, was put in his place. He, too, 
was soon dismissed, when Captain Smith, the ablest man among them, was 
happily chosen president. 

Captain Smith began his rule with great energy. He won the respect of 
the Indians by his prowess and justice, and they brought food to the colony^ 
consisting of maize or Indian corn and wild fowl. He and a few others ex- 
plored the Chickahominy River, where he was captured by the barbarians and 
narrowly escaped with his life. When Smith returned all was confusion at 
Jamestown; only forty men of the colony were living. These were abrut to 
sail for the West Indies, when Newport returned (1608) with supplies anr^ one 
hundred and twenty emigrants. They were merely adventurers — gold seek- 
ers. Smith implored them to cultivate the soil, but in vain. They were idle 
and dissolute. Smith left the colony in disgust, and in the course of three 
months he explored Chesapeake Bay, and its tributary streams in an open 
boat, travelling a thousand miles. 

Soon after Smith's return to Jamestown, Newport again arrived with 
seventy more undesirable emigrants, among them two women, the first 



244 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

Europeans of their sex who had appeared on the soil of Virginia proper (see 
North Carolina). Smith entreated the company to send over farmers and 
mechanics. He was little heeded. At the end of two years, when the set- 
tlement numbered two hundred strong men, only forty acres of land were 
under cultivation. 

The Company obtained a new charter in 1609. Lord De la Warr 
(Delaware) was appointed Governor; Sir Thomas Gates, lieutenant-governor; 
Sir George Somers, admiral; Christopher Newport, vice-admiral, and Sir 
Thomas Dale, high marshal. In June, 1609, nine vessels, with five hundred 
emigrants, among them twenty women and children, sailed for Virginia. 
Gates and Somers embarked with Newport, and the three were to govern the 
colony until the arrival of Lord De la Warr. The fleet was dispersed by a 
hurricane, and Newport's ship was wrecked on one of the Bermuda islands. 
Several of the vessels reached Jamestown, and added to the colony persons 
more profligate than the first — dissolute scions of wealthy families. Vir- 
ginia seemed a paradise for libertines. 

In the absence of the appointed rulers Smith continued to administer 
government until the autumn, when an accident compelled him to go to 
England for surgical treatment. Then the colonists gave themselves up to 
every irregularity. The Indians withheld supplies, and the winter and spring 
of 1610 was long remembered as the " starving time." The barbarians re- 
solved to exterminate the pale-faces, but they were spared by a timely warn- 
ing given them by Pocahontas, a young daughter of the Emperor Powhatan, 
who had saved the life of Captain Smith. Within six months after Captain 
Smith left, the nearly four hundred colonists were reduced to sixty. 

Gates arrived at Jamestown in June, 1610, when he resolved to abandon 
the wretched settlement, and go to Newfoundland with the famished survivors. 
They embarked in four pinnaces. They were met at Point Comfort by 
Lord De la Warr with supplies and emigrants, and all returned to the deserted 
village, and there, in the twilight, sang hymns of thanksgiving. In the course 
of two or three years, a much better class of emigrants arrived and general 
prosperity and hopefulness prevailed. 

In 161 7 George Yeardly was appointed Governor. At that time seven 
separate boroughs had been formed in the colony. From each of these 
Yeardly summoned two representatives to assemble at Jamestown, on July 30. 
These delegates formed a Representative Assembly, the first ever held by 
Europeans within the bounds of our Republic. Then a seal for the colony was 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 245 

adopted. The same year twelve hundred colonists arrived in Virginia, among 
whom were ninety " respectable young women " sent over to become wives 
for the planters. Within two years one hundred and fifty young women 
were sent to Virginia for the same purpose. Thus homes were established, 
the sure foundations of a prosperous State. 

The barbarians had already been made friendly by the marriage of Poca- 
hontas to a young Englishman of good family; but the King injured the 
colony by sending felons from English prisons to become servants to the 
planters. This policy was pursued for fully one hundred years in defiance 
of the protests of settlers. 

In 1619, a Dutch vessel took twenty Africans to Jamestown, sold them 
as slaves, and so the institution of negro slavery was introduced into the 
JR.epublic. 

In 162 1, the London Company gave to the colonists a written constitu- 
tion of government- It provided for the appointment of a Governor and 
Council by the Company, and a Representative Assembly, to consist of two 
turgesses or representatives from each borough, to be chosen by the people 
and clothed with full legislative power in connection with the Council. This 
body formed the General Assembly ; and this was the general form of govern- 
ment in Virginia until it became an independent commonwealth in 1776. 

New settlements were now made on the James, York, and Potomac 
rivers, and on the shores of Chesapeake Bay. Powhatan, the fast friend of 
the English, was now dead, and his brother and successor was hostile to them. 
Massacres by the barbarians ensued. The remote plantations were deso- 
lated, and the terrified survivors fled to Jamestown for protection. The 
number of eighty plantations was reduced to eight. A furious war of retal- 
iation ensued and the Indians were beaten back into the wilderness. (Similar 
troubles were experienced ten years later). Sickness and famine ravaged the 
land; many families left Virginia, and in 1624, of the nine thousand persons 
who had been sent to Virginia, only about two thousand remained. The 
same year Virginia became a royal province. 

Charles I. appointed Sir William Berkeley Governor of Virginia in 1641, 
at the beginning of the Civil War in England. Berkeley was a bigoted royalist, 
and the colonists remained loyal. Cromwell deposed Berkeley and put an- 
other in his place; but when monarchy was restored in England, Charles II. 
reinstated Berkeley, who played the tyrant so effectually that the suffering 
people rose in rebellion under the lead of Nathaniel Bacon, a wealthy and 



246 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

enterprising young lawyer, bold in spirit, and eloquent in speech. Repub- 
licanism took possession of the public mind. Bacon and his followers marched 
on Jamestown from Williamsburg, when the frightened Governor complied 
with the popular leader's demand for a commission as general of one thousand 
men to defend the colony against the Indians who threatened it with destruc- 
tion. When Bacon had marched against the barbarians gathering in the North, 
the faithless Governor crossed the York River, summoned a convention of 
Loyalists, and proclaimed the leader of the people a traitor. The indignant 
Bacon returned, and a fierce Civil War was kindled. Loyalists suffered in 
persons and estates. The Governor fled in alarm to the Eastern shore of 
Chesapeake Bay. Bacon proclaimed his abdication. Joined by some imperial 
troops and sailors, Berkeley returned to Jamestown. Bacon laid the village 
in ashes, and while pressing toward the York River, with his little army, he 
was slain by malarial fever. 

Dreadful persecutions of the republicans in Virginia now ensued. The 
King, disgusted with his cruel acts, recalled Berkeley (1677). After that the 
people were long oppressed by petty rulers, who were profligate and rapa- 
cious. When, at length, a revolution in England (1688) placed William of 
Orange and his wife Mary on the British throne, a real change for the better 
took place in Virginia. 

In 1699 Williamsburg was founded and made the capital of Virginia. 
There the General Assembly met in the year 1700. A revision of the code 
was made in 1705, when it declared that negro slaves were real property. 
Such was the law until 1776. 

Hostilities with the French broke out in 1754, they having built a line of 
military posts along the western slope of the Alleghany Mountains, in the 
rear of Virginia, at the head waters of the Ohio River. Governor Dinwiddie 
sent young George Washington on a diplomatic mission in 1753 to one of 
these posts. He discovered the intentions of the French, and the next year 
he led Virginia troops to confront this enemy. Virginia bore her share in 
the burdens imposed by the French and Indian war that ensued. When, 
soon after the close of that struggle, Great Britain began to oppress her colo- 
nies in America with her schemes of taxation, the Virginia House of Bur- 
gesses, under the lead of Patrick Henry, took a decided and patriotic stand 
in opposition. From that time until the breaking out of the old war for 
independence in 1775, the Virginians were conspicuous in maintaining the 
ricrhts of the colonists. 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 247 

Virginia was ably represented in the Continental Congress, which first 
assembled at Philadelphia in September, 1774. In the Congress of 1776, 
Richard Henry Lee, under instructions from the Legislature of Virginia, moved 
resolutions for the absolute independence of the English-American colonies; 
and another Virginian delegate in that body (Thomas Jefferson), wrote the 
famous Declaration of Independence. Already the royal Governor (Lord 
Dunmore) had begun a civil war within her borders, ravaging her coasts and 
burning Norfolk. 

On the 29th of July, 1776, the colonial existence of Virginia was ended 
"by the adoption of a State Constitution by a popular convention, when a 
State government was organized, with Patrick Henry as Chief Magistrate. 
Virginia has the honor of being the first of the English-American colonies to 
adopt a State Constitution with a view to a perpetual separation from Great 
Britain. On her soil, the fatal blow that dismembered the British Empire and 
made her colonies in America " free and independent States," was struck at 
Yorktown, when Cornwallis and his army surrendered to Washington. In 
1779, Richmond, at the Falls of the James River, became the capital of the 
State, and so it remains. 

In 1784, Virginia generously ceded to the United States its territory 
north-west of the Ohio River, which has since been organized into the States 
of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin. The present State of 
Kentucky was a part of Virginia, and was erected into a separate Territory 
in 1789. 

At the beginning of the war for independence, Virginia was the first to 
propose a Confederation of the States ; and when, at the close of the war, it 
was perceived that the form of national government which had been 
adopted was inadequate, citizens of that State were among the first to pro- 
pose a federal convention to remedy its defects. It was held at Philadelphia 
in 1787. Washington presided, and a National Constitution was formed, 
which was adopted by the people of the Union in 1788. But from the 
beginning the representatives of Virginia, in its State Legislature, were stren- 
uous advocates of " State Sovereignty," and opposed measures which would 
make the States one Union. In June, 1779, her Legislature separately rati- 
fied the Treaty with France, and asserted in the fullest degree the absolute 
sovereignty of the separate States. And Patrick Henry vehemently con- 
demned the phraseology of the preamble to the National Constitution, " We 



248 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

the People" arguing that it should have been " We the States." So, also did 
George Mason, one of her wisest statesmen. 

For many years the State of Virginia maintained a predominating influ- 
ence in national affairs. During the second war for independence (1812-15) 
its coasts were ravaged by amphibious British marauders, especially the 
shores of Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. In 18 14, the British captured 
Alexandria, and burned portions of the City of Washington, on its borders. 
One of the most conspicuous military leaders in that war, General Winfield 
Scott, was a native of Virginia. Her statesmen have ever been conspicuous 
in the national councils; and because seven of its citizens have held the 
high position of Chief Magistrate of the Republic, it has been called " The 
Mother of Presidents." 

In May, 1857, a zealous philanthropist named John Brown made an un- 
wise and unlawful attempt to liberate the slaves of Virginia. His zeal had 
been intensified by sufferings in Kansas, where he had been an active anti- 
slavery champion during the Civil War there in 1855. With seventeen white 
men and five negroes he entered the village of Harper's Ferry, at the mouth 
of the Shenandoah River, on a very dark night, put out the street lights,, 
seized the government armory and the railway bridge, and quietly arrested 
and imprisoned in the government buildings every citizen found in the streets 
at the early hours the next morning. He felt assured that when the first 
blow should be struck, the negroes of the surrounding country would join in 
the movement, and a general uprising of the slaves would occur. He was 
grievously mistaken. News of the affair went swiftly abroad by telegraph.. 
Soon a large number of Virginia militia were flocking to Harper's Ferry, and 
a detachment of United States troops was sent there under Col. Robert E. Lee, 
After a brief conflict, Brown and his followers were captured. The leader 
was hanged. This mad movement was one of the important events, under 
Providence, which caused the final emancipation of all the slaves in the 
Republic. 

Early in 1861, the question of Secession from the Union agitated the 
people. Virginia ranked among the " border States." The secessionists 
within its boundaries were very active, and labored for its cooperation with 
the Southern Confederacy of insurgents. The Legislature made an appro- 
priation of $100,000,000 for the "defense of the State," It recommended a 
Peace Congress, at the National Capital, of delegates from the several States 
to effect a compromise, after the insurgents had begun open war. It assem- 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 249 

bled in February; Ex-President John Tyler presided. It was fruitless of 
good. 

A State convention was assembled at Richmond on February 13th, 1861, 
and on April 17 passed an ordinance of Secession. Immediately afterwards 
the State authorities took possession of national property within the limits 
of the commonwealth. On the 25th of the same month action was taken for 
the annexation of the State to the Southern Confederacy and surrendering 
the control of its military forces to the latter power. It was done, and on 
the 4th of May its representatives were admitted to seats in the " Confeder- 
erate States " Congress at Montgomery, Alabama. Confederate troops were 
now thrown into the State for the purpose of seizing the National Capital, its 
archives and its treasury — a prime object of the insurgents. 

From that time until the close of the Civil War Virginia was dreadfully 
scourged by armies contending on its soil. Western Virginia had remained 
loyal to the Union, and its inhabitants organized a new State there. (See 
Western Virginia.) 

Like other States of the Union, paralyzed by the operations of the insur- 
gents, Virginia went through a process of resuscitation after the war. The 
State was placed under military control by the National Government. A 
new constitution was prepared by a State convention, which was ratified on 
July 6, 1869, by a majority of 197,044 votes out of a total of 215,422, It 
being in consonance with the Fourteenth Amendment of the National Con- 
stitution, State officers and representatives in Congress were elected, and in 
January, 1870, Virginia, reorganized, was allowed representation in Congress. 
On the 26th of that month. Gen. Canby, in command of the military depart- 
ment, formally transferred the government of the State to the civil 
authorities. 

Virginia was greatly impoverished by the war. Her manufactories were 
destroyed and her agricultural operations were seriously crippled. The 
seat of the Confederate government had been transferred from Montgomery 
to Richmond. During the later period of the war. General Robert E. Lee, 
one of her sons, was Commander-in-chief of the Confederate armies; and on 
her soil, near Appomatox Court House, he surrendered the great army under 
his immediate command (April 9, 1865) to General Ulysses S. Grant. Already 
the Confederate civil government had fled from its capital (Richmond), which 
had been set on fire by order of the President of the Confederacy (Jefferson 
Davis) on his departure. 



250 



I III'. (IK FAT RFlUTlUjr OF TITF WFST 



The State nl Vii|;iiii,i, possessed of .ilmml.ml ii.iliii.il resources and re- 
lieved from the hiirdeii ol the slavt-LilxM s)'.lfm, i-. i.ipidi)' recovering; fiom 
the sad elfeits of its cahiinities. 

Viri'iiiia is s«>metiines lalled " The ( )ld I )i)iniiii«>ii." Queeii I'-Ii/.ahet li 
repaided the wist and iiiideliiii d diuiiaiii in AiiKiita, Unown as Vir^dnia, as a 
foiiilh kin[;ih>iu t>i lui realm. Spencer, the friend «>f Raleigh, (UHhcated his 
pt»em the I'tirry Oufin to " I'dizabeth, Queen of I'.np.land, h'ranee, Irtdand 
,;»nd Viri'inia." When James 1. smeeeded I'Ui/.abet h, in i<)i)^, Siotl.md was 
.idded, and Vlrjijinia was called, in i-oniplinu-nt, the filth kin|Mlon>. When 
Piinee Charh's, son of the heheaded Kin|'., was in exile, lu" was invili'd to 
i'ome ti\'ei and l»e Kin;', ol Vii|;inia. When lu- was on the throne as ('harU's 
II. the ^ralelnl monaiih lansed the .irms ol V^irjdnia to he ([uartered with 
those of I'.n^land, Scotland and Iu'l.mi! as ai\ independi-nt mc-mher «)f the 
Empire. Coins with smli .|iiai tei ini;s wen- stinek as late as 1773. Tluse 
circumst.mces caused Virj;inia to receive the title of "The Ohl Domim'on." 



,.e 











ierofonjL 




'MtlJ 



NKW YoI'K i", r;,||.r| " 'J |,r- |-,(,) piVc St.'ltP," It I", f;iilly 
'iilitl''! to 111'- 'l];Miily hy f li<- iinirih'f ol it-, jxopl*-, JtH 
w<-;iltli, its populouH citicH, itn CHrial'. .iri'l railwHy;-*, the 
<xt,<*ril of it -i ;ij;ri( iiltiirul and rnatiufat t ur«-'l j^roWin ti'r^fiM, 
iti piihlir iir.f if iif ion •, for tli«: fxrticfit of society, and itH 
politK.il and .Of iai influence in tlic nation, hh compared 
v/iili tli<- ofl.'T State*. 
New York ih one of the Middle Atlantic Statcn, and one of fh'- orijdnaj 
thirteen. On its borders are the Dominion of Canada and tlie Stale* of 
Verfnont, Ma,'^Hac}inMetts, Connecticut, Ne-vv Jeritey and I'enii'iylvania, and the 
Atlantic Ocean, It h'en between latitude 40" 29' /jr/, and 45'' N., and 71 ^, r' 
and "/'/' /}^' W. loiii'itud' from Cr'enwif h. 'llie area of fli'- State in/\'),i'/') 
square rrn'len; and the jioijulation in I'Mo wuh 5,082,871, of y/hofn 66,849 were 
colored, including; (//j Chine-te and y,i'j Indian,. 'I h' j/ojjiilation i'i now 
(iy,Hy,) probably 6,f )(/),(//). 

'I !)'• iiat iiral 'ie<riery of New York is j;r'atly div'-rafied. It abound', in 
chartniri}; lake",, lofty monntainH, beautiful rivern, fertile vall'y> ,ind ujdandi, 
anrl ui its wentern portion, in rich plainn. On itn north-ea»tern borrler i-, Cakr- 
Champlain, one hundred anrj forty rm'les in lenjjth ; and on itw wentern fro;i- 
tier i'', the maj/nifK.ent cataract of Niaj;ara, itH immediate xurroundinf^'t in 
New York nov/ b<inr^ ,a d'lijdil f ul publii paik lor tli'- free UHe of lli<- p'ople. 
Ill til'- Adirond;iel< rt:yU)i\, wlier' 'I H ha -nKr,, "thr- ',l<y piercer" CMoiinf 
Marcy;, riwcft between five and nix thousand feet above the nea level, in alno 
a lar^a* rcnervation for a jMiblic park. In the extreme northern jjrirtion of 
the State the mountain*!^ ^■,h*I)e down U> tin: St, Lawrence level, and terminate 
on tlic weHtern nhoren of Lake ChampKiin. 

The climate of Nev/ Yorl; v. ■ alnbr ioir, -md v;iri'fl. 'Mi'- death-rate, even 
in its citieH, in below the average of the country; and on ith Hea-hhoreM and 
amonj; \\•^ hill-, arul mountain",, \\. i>re'>entH Hom'- of tli'- mo",t eharminj^ and 



252 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST 



salutary health resorts in the world. It abounds in mineral springs, the 
healing properties of which are most remarkable. 

In the middle portion of the State, not many miles from Lake Ontario, 
are apparently inexhaustible salt springs. 

The history of the commonwealth of New York presents to the student 
a most attractive tale of romance. Undoubtedly the first European v/ho 
trod its soil was Samuel Champlain, a famous French navigator, who, in the 
summer of 1609, came up the Sorel River in an Indian canoe, in company 
with Frenchmen and barbarians, into the Lake that now bears his name, and 
landed on its shores. At about the same time Henry Hudson, an English 




GEORGE CLINTON, FIRST GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK. 

navigator, employed by the Dutch East India Company, was approaching 
the Bay of New York, and entered it and the river that now bears his name, 
early in September. He sailed up that river in his little vessel {Half Moon) 
of ninety tons burthen, nearly to the site of Troy, one hundred and sixty 
miles. 

Hudson discovered Man-na-hat-ta Island, on which the city of New York 
now stands, and the shores of the Ma-hic-can-nic, or River of the Mountains,, 
abounding with human beings and fur-bearing animals. He hastened to 
Europe with the tidings of his great discovery, and very soon ships left the 
Texel with adventurers to open traffic with the barbarians of the newly-found 
regions in North America. The Dutch claimed that region as their own, by 
right of discovery, Hudson being in their employ. 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 253 

Dutch adventurers established a trading-post at the southern end of 
Mannahatta or Manhattan Island in 1610, where they trafficked with the 
barbarians in the interior, who brought furs and peltries to them. A Dutch 
vessel laden with skins was about to depart for Holland when it took fire. 
and was burned, late in 161 3. The crew built some log huts, felled timber, 
and constructing a rude vessel which they called The Restless, sailed for 
Europe with the cargo, in the spring of 1614. So began ship-building on the 
site of the great commercial city of New York. 

Adventurers returning to Holland gave such glowing accounts of the newly 
discovered country that the States-General or National Congress of the 
Netherlands granted special privileges for traffic with the natives by Hol- 
landers. A trading company was formed, and on October 11, 1614, they 
obtained a " charter of privileges " covering the region on the Atlantic coast 
between latitudes 40° and 45°, N., and indefinitely westward. The tract lay 
between Virginia and New France, as the St. Lawrence region was called. 
The country was named New Nethcrland. 

The renewal of this charter being denied at its expiration, Dutch mer- 
chants revised a scheme formed in 1607 for the establishment of a Dutch 
West India Company. They succeeded in obtaining from the States-Gen- 
eral a charter for such a company on June 3, 1620. It was made not only a 
great commercial monopoly, but it was invested with almost regal power to 
colonize, govern and defend the domain. 

Meanwhile the traders at Manhattan, had ascended the River of the 
Mountains (now the Hudson) to the site of Albany and into the Mohawk 
Valley, and had made a most remarkable discovery. They found in the vast 
forests in the interior a well-organized barbarian Republic, conposed of five 
confederated tribes of Indians, well governed by efficient laws and possessing 
vast offensive and defensive strength. This Republic, known as the " Iroquois 
Confederacy," afterwards played an important part in the history of New 
York, particularly in the colonial period. The Dutch early made treaties 
with these barbarians. 

The " Dutch West India Company " was organized in 1622. King James 
of England reminded the States-General that Hollanders were intruding on 
English soil. It was claimed that the grant to the Plymouth and London 
Companies (see Virginia) covered the land westward to the Pacific Ocean. 
But the Hollanders paid no attention to the growl of the British lion. 

At that time there was in Holland a class of refugees from persecution, 



254 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

called Walloons — natives of the present region of Southern Belgium. They 
were Protestants, who had made their abode in Holland, then an asylum for 
the oppressed. They were a hardy people and had desired to settle in Vir- 
ginia. They accepted proposals from the Dutch West India Company to 
go to New Netherland; and early in March, 1623, thirty families of the Wal- 
loons, comprising one hundred and ten men, women and children, sailed 
from the Texel in the Neiv Netherland, a ship of two hundred tons burthen, 
with agricultural implements, live stock of every kind, and a sufficient quan- 
tity of household furniture. They reached Manhattan at the beginning of 
May. Some seated themselves on that island ; some went to the banks of 
the Delaware across New Jersey; others up the Hudson River; some to the 
Valley of the Connecticut, and others to Long Island. Thus was planted 
the fruitful seed of the State of New York. 

The Company nurtured the colony. In 1624, a shadow of civil govern- 
ment appeared in the installation of Captain May, of the New Netherland, 
as Director of the colony. In 1626, the Company sent over Peter Minuit as 
Governor, who bought the whole of Manhattan Island — about twenty thou- 
sand acres — from the natives, for twenty-four dollars. He built a quadrangu- 
lar fortification at its southern extremity, which he named Fort Amsterdam, 
and the rude village that was growing near it was afterwards called New 
Amsterdam. 

In 1629, the Company gave to the settlers a charter of "privileges and 
exemptions," which encouraged the emigration of thrifty farmers from the 
fatherland. As much land was offered to the emigrants as they could culti- 
vate, with free " liberty of hunting and fowling." At the same time grants 
of extensive domains, with manorial privileges, were offered to wealthy 
persons who should induce a sufficient number of settlers to people and cul- 
tivate these lands. These persons were called PatrooJis. By this operation 
much of the most valuable lands in the country went into the possession of 
wealthy men. Among the more extensive owners of these patroon lands 
was Killian Van Rensselaer, an opulent pearl merchant of Amsterdam, and 
member of the Company, who bought of the Indians a vast domain on both 
sides of the Hudson, near Albany. 

New Netherland had now been constituted a county of Holland. It 
flourished in spite of the maladministration of two of its governors, the 
absurd Walter Van Twiller and the fiery and unscrupulous William Keift. 
The former was stupid ; the latter was shrewd, grasping and tyrannical when 



J 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 255 

he dared to be. He involved the colony in quarrels and wars with the 
neighboring Indians which brought it to the verge of ruin at times. At 
length Peter Stuyvesant, a bold, strong and honest Friedlander, a soldier who 
had lost a leg in battle, and had been Governor of Cura^oa, came to New 
Netherland as Director-general of the province. He ruled with justice but 
with an iron hand. A Swedish colony had settled on the Delaware River 
within the claimed domain of New Netherland in spite of Keift's bluster. 
Stuyvesant soon subdued them, extinguished " New Sweden," annexed it to 
New Netherland, and made peace with the Indians. He had much trouble 
with democracy among the people and vainly tried to crush it ; and he was 
annoyed by the claims of the English to the Connecticut Valley and west- 
ward of it. 

But a greater trouble vexed the soul of Peter Stuyvesant when, in 
August, 1664, a British land and naval force appeared before New Amster- 
dam, and its commander demanded the surrender of the whole province into 
the hands of the intruder. New Amsterdam was then an incorporated city 
with a burgher government. The English had never relinquished their claim 
that New Netherland was a part of Virginia, and it was forcibly asserted by 
Charles II., in the Spring of 1664, when he granted the whole domain, including 
all (present) New Jersey, to his brother, the Duke of York. Colonel Richard 
Nicolls commanded the invading forces. Stuyvesant, though too weak to 
successfully resist, sturdily refused to surrender, until he was compelled to 
by the public voice. The city and colony passed into the possession of the 
English on September 8, 1664, and were named " New York" in compliment 
to the Duke. Colonel Nicolls was made the first English Governor. 

In August, 1673, New York was taken by a Dutch force, while war was 
raging between England and Holland, but it was returned to the English, by 
treaty, in 1674, and remained a British province until 1776. 

The Dutch, who had felt the " tyranny " of Stuyvesant's rule, and longed 
for the " freedom of New England," anticipated much happiness from the 
change, but were sorely mistaken. The Duke's governing magistrates were 
quite as despotic, and were less acceptable than Dutch rulers to Dutch sub- 
jects. 

In 1683, Thomas Dongan, an enlightened Roman Catholic, was made Gov- 
ernor of New York. He called a representative assembly chosen by the 
people, and a " Charter of Liberties " was given to the colonists by consent 
of the Duke. This was the germ of representative government in New York. 



256 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

When the Duke became King James H., he did not fulfill his promises made 
through Dongan, and the privileges of the charter were denied. He sent 
another Governor (Andros) who oppressed the people. 

When James was driven from the throne of England in 1688, and 
William of Orange and his wife Mary ascended it, the chief magistrate at 
New York (Nicholson) abandoned his post. At the request of the people, 
Jacob Leisler, a merchant of republican tendencies, administered the govern- 
ment until a royal Governor was sent over. Leisler had bitter enemies among 
the aristocracy; and when the Governor came they procured the arrest of the 
popular leader, and his son-in-law, Millborne, on a charge of treason. Hav- 
ing intoxicated the Governor with strong liquor they procured his signature 
to death warrants and Leisler and Millborne were executed. This event 
caused a wonderful stimulus to the growth of democracy in New York. 

During this political trouble western and northern New York was the 
scene of fierce hostilities between the French and Indians of Canada and the 
Five Nations of the Great Confederacy. The Confederacy was friendly with 
the English, and the French turned upon the former. A party of French 
and Indians burned Schenectady in February, 1690, and murdered many of 
the inhabitants. The colony now made common cause with the Confederacy, 
and from 1702 until 1713 hostilities between them and the French prevailed. 
Lake Champlain became a theatre of war. The French built a fort at 
Crown Point; and in 1745 a party of French and Indians penetrated the 
upper valley of the Hudson and laid waste Saratoga. 

Meanwhile the colony had become the theatre of warm political strife 
between the adherents of democracy and royalty during the administration 
of several governors. There was a notable struggle for the freedom of the 
press in the trial of John Peter Zenger, publisher of a newspaper, for libel, in 
criticising the official acts of the public officers. The decision of the jury in 
July, 1735, was in Zenger's favor. That decision " wa;s the germ of American 
freedom — the morning-star of that liberty which subsequently revolutionized 
America." 

The relation between the English and the Iroquois confederacy re- 
mained generally friendly down to the Revolution in 1775. In I754» an im- 
portant convention of representatives of the English-American colonies was 
held at Albany chiefly for the purpose of strengthening the bond with these 
barbarians. At that convention, a political union of the colonies was pro- 
posed and discussed. A plan, urawn Dy Dr. Franklin, was adopted. Its 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 257 

features were similar to that of the National Constitution, adopted more 
than thirty years afterwards. 

In the struggle for supremacy in America known as the French and 
Indian war, New York bore its full share of the burdens imposed by it; and 
it took a conspicuous part in the ten years' quarrel which ensued between the 
English-American colonies and the mother country, before the kindling of 
the old war for independence. From the time of the trial of Zenger, until 
1775, the history of the State was largely the history of opposing political 
parties — a struggle for self-government on the part of the people. 

During the Stamp Act and other excitements, New York tried to be 
loyal and yet be faithful to the interests for freedom of the people. It often 
appeared less zealous for liberty than Massachusetts and Virginia; but 
when the blow was struck at Lexington and Bunker Hill, no Province or 
State became more earnest for liberty than New York. Fort Ticonderoga 
on Lake Champlain was captured in May, 1775, and very soon the sons of 
New York, under the leadership of Generals Schuyler and Montgomery, 
joined with others, pressed toward Canada, seizing Montreal, and besieging 
Quebec amid the snows of winter. This invasion was a failure. 

In the Fall of 1777, New Yorkers swarmed around the invading army 
under Burgoyne and compelled him to surrender. They drove St. Leger and 
his Canadians, Tories and Indians, from the Mohawk Valley back to Lake 
Ontario, and saved the whole country from the consummation of one of the 
most dangerous schemes of conquest concocted by the British authorities. 
When the armed struggle ceased, the city of New York became the theatre of 
the last act in the great drama — the departure, in November, 1783, of the 
last hostile British soldier from the shores of America, and the flight of 
crowds of Loyalists to distant British provinces. 

Meanwhile the people of New York, in a representative convention, as- 
sembled at Kingston in Ulster County in the spring of 1777, formed a State 
constitution, and during the succeeding summer, organized a State govern- 
ment with General George Clinton, Governor. In October following a British 
marauding force broke through the barriers at the Highlands, where they 
had captured Forts Clinton and Montgomery, and went up the Hudson, and 
burned Kingston. The new State legislature fled to Poughkeepsie, in Duch- 
ess county, where frequent sessions were afterwards held until Albany 
became the permanent seat of government in 1797. 

Before and after the Revolution the authorities of New York had bitter 



258 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 

controversies with those of (present) Vermont concerning territorial and 
political jurisdiction over what was termed the " New Hampshire Grants." 
Open hostilities were sometimes threatened, but the matter was finally set- 
tled by compromise. (See Vermont.) 

At the close of the war, attention was wisely directed to the development 
of the resources of the State. A campaign against the Indians in the Gen- 
essee country under General Sullivan, in 1779, had revealed the natural rich- 
ness and beauty of the interior of the State, and a tide of emigration thither 
speedily set in from New England and elsewhere. Population rapidly 
increased. New counties were organized and great internal improvements 
were begun. 

During the closing decade of the last century, the practical development 
of the canal systems of the State was initiated. Two " Inland Lock Navi- 
gation " companies were formed, of which General Philip Schuyler was Presi- 
dent. The Northern or Champlain Canal, which connects the Hudson River 
with Lake Champlain, was constructed, and the Western Canal was com- 
pleted to Oneida Lake in 1796. This was the germ of the great Erie Canal, 
which was actually begun in 1817, and completed in 1825, at a cost of over 
$9,000,000. Its subsequent enlargement cost $25,000,000. 

The form of national government adopted at near the close of the war 
for independence, proved to be untrustworthy as a bond of union for the 
States. A convention held at Philadelphia in the summer of 1787, framed a 
new constitution of government, which was submitted to the people of the 
several States. Those of New York, in representative convention, assembled 
at Poughkeepsie in the summer of 1788, ratified the great instrument, and 
ever afterwards the Commonwealth was ably represented in both Houses of 
the National Congress. 

It was on the Hudson River, in New York, that successful navigation by, 
steam power was first accomplished, in 1807; and the first passenger railway 
operated in America was constructed between the Hudson and Mohawk 
rivers, connecting Albany and Schenectady by an iron bond. 

During the second war for independence (18 12- 15), the northern frontiei 
of New York bordering on Canada became the scene of many stirring mili, 
tary events, from Buffalo to Ogdensburgh and below. The contests on the 
Niagara frontier were specially notable. They were chiefly on the Canada 
side of the rapid strait between Lakes Erie and Ontario. There were severe 
struggles at Oucenstown, N'agara Falls or Lundy's Lane, Chippewa, Fort 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 259 

Erie and Black Rock. Also at Forts George and Niagara at the mouth of 
the river. On Lake Ontario were stirring naval operations. At Sacketts 
Harbor was a notable struggle, and on the St. Lawrence borders were sharp 
conflicts. Lake Champlain was witness to a momentous strife between the 
military and naval forces of America and Great Britain in September, 18 14. 
From New York harbor, the great seaport of the State, went out many 
privateers that achieved conquests which gave renown to the American navy. 

The first public proposition to abolish negro slavery in New York was 
made by Governor Jay in 1794. It was repeated by Governor Tompkins in 
1817; and this measure was finally accomplished in full in 1827. There had 
been in colonial times two alarming events connected with slavery in the 
city of New York, known as " Negro Plots; " one in 1712, the other in 1741. 
There appears to have been no reasonable foundation for suspicion of a con- 
spiracy of the negroes in either case. 

The constitution of the State has been revised several times — in i8oi> 
1 82 1, 1846 and in i867-'8. Each revision was marked by a notable advance 
in giving freedom to the people from oligarchic power. In the last revision 
several important amendments were proposed. The instrument was sub- 
mitted to the people at the general fall election in 1869, when it was rejected, 
excepting a section providing for the election of the higher court judges by 
the people for a term of fourteen years, or until they should reach the age 
of seventy years. In November, 1874, several amendments proposed by the 
Legislature were ratified by a vote of the people. These abolished the prop- 
erty qualifications of colored voters; restricted the power of the Legislature 
to pass private or local bills; made changes in the executive departments; 
prescribed an oath of office in relation to bribery; established safeguards 
against official corruption, and removed restrictions imposed on the Legisla- 
ture in regard to selling or leasing certain of the State canals. 

The Commonwealth was in a state of great prosperity, when the tempest 
of civil war burst upon the nation. When the overt act of war was performed 
in Charleston harbor, at the beginning of 1861, the Legislature of New York 
and the people generally took a bold stand in support of the Union. When. 
at near the middle of April, the insurgents attacked Fort Sumter, and the 
President called upon the nation for means to quell the hostile movements 
in the slave-labor States, New York was foremost in furnishing men and 
money for the salvation of the Republic. The great metropolis and the rural 
districts were alike animated by the most intense patriotism and enthusiasm.. 



26o THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 

Capitalists, with the most subHme faith in the cause, poured millions of money 
into the treasury of the Republic. Before the close of 1861, the loyal people 
of the State had loaned to the National Government $210,000,000, and at the 
close of the war the Commonwealth had furnished 473,443 soldiers for the 
conflict, and disbursed among them for bounties alone, $35,000,000, in addi- 
tion to other enormous expenses. 

In 1867 the Legislature adopted the Fourteenth Amendment to the Na- 
tional Constitution, which guaranteed the rights of every citizen of whatever 
hue and social condition ; defined the status in regard to public office of men 
who had engaged in the rebellion, and forbade the payment of any part of 
the Confederate debt by the Nation or by a State. Since that time New York- 
has gone on steadily on its bounding career. Although its territory includes 
less than one sixty-third of the whole country, its inhabitants form one-tenth 
of the entire population. Its twenty-five cities contain, in the aggregate, be- 
tween one-fifth and one-fourth of the entire urban population of the United 
States. 

New York is the foremost manufacturing State in the Union, and largely 
so of the products of almost every industry. The assessed valuation of its 
real and personal property in 1880 was equal in amount to one-seventh of 
the valuation of the entire real and personal property of the whole Republic. 
It was the same in amount as that of the whole of New England. 

But the highest glory of New York consists in its magnificent provision 
for public instruction, and its munificent and varied charities. While it 
has only one-tenth of the population of the Republic, its expenditures for 
popular education in all its phases is more than one-eighth of that of the 
whole Union. It has nine normal schools for the instruction of teachers, for 
which it expended almost $300,000 in 1886, and $14,000,000 the same year 
for the support of public schools. 

The intelligence of a large community, like a State, may be fairly meas- 
ured by the activity of its printing presses, especially of those which distri- 
bute intelligence through newspapers and magazines. In 1880, New York 
produced nearly one-third, in value, of the books published in the United 
States. It also issued nearly one-eighth of all the magazines or " periodicals," 
and nearly one-eighth of all the newspapers issued in the Republic. Of the 
aggregate circulation of the daily newspapers in the Union, New York fur- 
nished between one-fourth and one-third. In the same proportion were its 
issues of weeklies and all other periodicals in the United States. 






^ww 




(1620.) 

The earliest settled of the Eastern or New England States, 
was Massachusetts. It was one of the original thirteen 
States of the Union, lying between 41° 14' and 42° 53' north 
latitude, and 69° 53' and 73 32' west longitude. On its 
eastern and south-eastern border is the Atlantic Ocean. 
Along its southern border stretches Connecticut; on its 
western, New York, and on its northern, Vermont and New Hampshire. 

The Commonwealth comprises in its total area, including islands, 8,315 
square miles of territory. Its coast line is deeply indented with bays, harbors 
and sounds, and its islands are numerous. The name of the State signifies 
"The Blue Hills," in the Indian tongue. The first settlement was made on 
Cape Cod Bay, the southern portion of a great gulf, of which Massachusetts 
Bay forms the northern part. 

The topography of Massachusetts is exceedingly picturesque, especially 
in the western part, where the Green Mountain range crosses the State in 
broken ridges of moderate elevation. Its climate is quite severe in winter, 
but very salubrious. Its soil is not generally very fertile, but is rendered 
productive by the skill and industry of the people. The principal river in 
the State is the Connecticut, which flows in from Vermont, intersects the 
State, and traverses Connecticut to Long Island Sound. 

There appears to be conclusive evidence that navigators from Iceland 
visited the shores of south-eastern Massachusetts at the beginning of the 
nth century, and called the country " Vineland," because of the abundance 
of grapes which they found there. It is conjectured that Sebastian Cabot, 
who discovered the coasts of Labrador and Maine in 1498, sailed along those 
of Massachusetts, and that Verazzani, an Italian in the French service, visited 
that region in 1524. 

The shores of Massachusetts were explored by Bartholomew Gosnold in 
1602, by Samuel Champlain in 1604.. and by John Smith in 1614. Gosnold 



262 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

made an attempt to found a settlement on one of the Elizabeth Islands^ 
which he had discovered. Captain Smith made a map of much of the coast 
of New England, which name was given to the region at that time. 

An association called the Plymouth Company obtained from King James- 
I. a charter for a domain situated between latitude 41° and 45° north. They 
made various attempts at colonization, but failed. The first permanent set- 
tlement effected under the auspices of the Company was on the shores of 
Cape Cod Bay, late in 1620, by a company of English Puritans, who had 
taken refuge in Holland from persecution in their own country a few years 




JOHN HANCOCK, FIRST GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

before. They had formed a Church at Leyden, with John Robinson as pas- 
tor, and called themselves " Pilgrims." 

These Puritans made arrangements with the Plymouth Company and 
some London merchants for planting a settlement in America. One hun- 
dred and one men, women, and children, embarked in the Mayflozvcr, a little 
vessel of 180 tons burthen, at the middle of September (N. S.), 1620, and left 
the vessel on the snow-clad shores of Cape Cod Bay on December 22 (N. S.), 
where they constructed some log huts and called the place New Plymouth. 
In the cabin of the Mayflozvcr the men had signed a form of government by 
which they were to be ruled, and chose John Carver Governor of the Colony 
for one year. 

It was the first instrument of civil government ever subscribed as the act 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 263 

of a whole people, and may be regarded as the foundation of civil and religious 
liberty in the Western World. It read as follows: 

" In the name of God, Amen. We whose names are underwritten, the 
Loyal Subjects of our dread Sovereign King James, by the Grace of God, o'f 
Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, etc., Having 
undertaken, for the Glory of God and the advancement of the Christian Faith, 
and honor of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the first Colony in 
the Northern parts of Virginia; Do, by these Presents, solemnly and mutually, 
in the Presence of God, and of one another. Consent and Combine ourselves 
together into a Civil body Politic, for our Ordering and Preservation, and 
Furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by Virtue hereof, to enact, constitute 
and frame just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions, and Offices 
from Time to Time as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the 
General Good of the Colony; unto which we promise all due Submission and 
Obedience. In witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our Names at 
Cape Cod the eleventh of November [O. S.], in the year of the Reign of our 
Sovereign Lord, King James, Of England, France and Ireland, the Eighteenth 
and of Scotland the Fifty-fourth, Anno Domini, 1620." 

Cold, unwholesome food and privations produced sickness that destroyed 
nearly one-half their number in four months. Among the victims was the 
Governor, who was succeeded by William Bradford. Elder William Brcvvster 
was their spiritual guide and wise counsellor. They made a treaty of friend- 
ship with the sachems of the surrounding Indian tribes, and in petty hostili- 
ties with other barbarians, Captain Miles Standish, a valiant little soldier, was 
very useful. 

Other Puritans joined the Pilgrims, and other settlements were soon 
attempted. The colony at Plymouth suffered much until the autumn of 1623, 
when bountiful harvests rewarded their industry and food was made plentiful. 
Then the community system of labor was abandoned, the partnership with 
the London merchants was dissolved, and the colonists became sole proprietors 
in 1627. 

This desirable arrangement was made by a contract on the part of the 
Colonists, to pay to the Company of Adventurers the sum of $9,000 in nine 
equal instalments, beginning with the following year. The Adventurers agreed 
to convey to the Planters " Every their stocks, shares, lands, merchandise, and 
chattels," and discharge the latter from their contract of " service and partner- 
ship." It was a hazardous speculation for the Planters, for they " knew not 



264 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

well how to raise the money, and discharge their other engagements, and 
supply their yearly wants, seeing they were forced for their necessities to take 
up moneys or goods at a very high rate of interest." Eight of the chief men 
became jointly bound as sureties for the payment of the whole sum. 

A new organization and distribution were now adopted. A partnership 
was formed of all the men on the spot, of " suitable age and prudence " under 
an agreement that the trade should be managed by them as a joint-stock com- 
pany, and that " every free man should have a single share and every father 
of a family also be allowed to purchase a share for his wife, and a share for 
every child he had living with him." One cow and two goats were assigned, 
by lot, to every six persons as shares, and swine in proportion. To every 
person or share was assigned twenty acres of land. The houses became 
private property. 

An English company obtained a grant of territory on Massachusetts 
Bay, the northern part of the gulf, and in 1628 sent 100 settlers, with John 
Endicott as Governor, who planted a colony on the site of (present) Salem. 
Others soon joined them, when, in 1629, a royal charter was obtained for 
the " Massachusetts Bay Company." The country was ever afterwards called 
" The Bay State." 

Large reinforcements now came. New settlements were planted, and 
farming implements and live stock were furnished to the settlers. In 1630, 
when the colony numbered one thousand souls, John Winthrop, who had 
come with many new settlers, was elected Governor. The charter and the 
corporate powers of the company had been transferred from England to 
Massachusetts, and so the foundations of the Commonwealth were firmly 
laid. Winthrop and many others had founded a settlement which they 
named Boston, and it became the capital of the colony. 

For a while religious intolerance marked the rulers in Church and 
State in Massachusetts. These refugees from intolerance, zealous of their 
liberties, became more intolerant themselves, and Churchman and Quaker 
were persecuted. Roger Williams, an eccentric Puritan preacher at Salem, 
was banished from the colony because of his earnest championship of " Soul 
liberty." (See Rhode Island.) 

In 1637 the colony was disturbed by war with the Pequods of Connecticut^ 
but danger was soon overpast. Greater danger to their liberties appeared in 
the action of King Charles I., who demanded the surrender of their charter 
to the Crown. The colonists prepared to resist the unrighteous demand. 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 265 

During the civil war in England, which soon ensued, they were unmolested ; 
but on the restoration of monarchy, in 1660, their political troubles were 
revived, for Charles II. claimed supreme jurisdiction in Massachusetts. 

The colonists sent a commission to England in 1662, who obtained a 
confirmation of their charter and a conditional amnesty for offenders during 
the troubles between royalty and the people. At the same time the monarch 
demanded the repeal of all laws contrary to his sovereign authority; also an 
oath of allegiance to the Crown; the administration of justice in his name;, 
the complete toleration of the Church of England in Massachusetts, and a 
concession of the elective franchise to every man having a competent estate. 
Hitherto only Church members were allowed to vote. 

In 1664 royal commissioners arrived at Boston to investigate and regulate 
the affairs of the colony. The people would have nothing to do with them,, 
and they returned home. The King reproved the authorities of Massachu- 
setts, and ordered the Governor to his presence. The Governor refused to 
go, and there the matter rested. 

A conflict with the neighboring Indians, known as " King Philip's War,'* 
broke out in 1675, and severely scourged the colonists. A dozen towns,, 
6,000 houses, and over 600 men, women and children of the colonists perished 
during the struggle. One in twenty of the men had fallen, and one in twenty 
families were made homeless. The cost of the war was half a million dollars. 

The royal pretensions to rule the colony were renewed after the war,, 
and in 1684 the High Court of Chancery declared the charter of Massachu- 
setts forfeited to the Crown. Joseph Dudley was appointed royal Governor; 
the General Assembly chosen by the people was dissolved ; and a royal com- 
mission superseded the charter government. Sir Edmund Andros succeeded 
Dudley and ruled tyrannically. The people submitted most impatiently. 
They were finally relieved when the last Stuart King was driven from the 
throne in 1688. Then the men of Boston seized and imprisoned Andros, and 
sent him, a fugitive, to England. 

Massachusetts received a new charter in 1692, by which New Plymouth 
was united with it. The Commonwealth then included 40,000 inhabitants. 
It was divided into several counties. Its Governor and Secretary were ap- 
pointed by the King, and its laws were invalid until approved by the mon- 
arch. It was at about this time that the fearful delusion known as " Salem 
witchcraft " disturbed the colony for six months. 

In 1692 the General Assembly of Massachusetts, after the receipt of the 



266 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

new charter, passed a declaration of the rights of the colony, which em- 
bodied the grand postulate enunciated seventy years afterwards by the 
English-American colonies — " Taxation without Representation is Tyranny." 

At various times the colony was smitten by invading French and Indian 
bands, who first broke over the border in 1703 and 1704; and from that time 
until the close of the Seven Years, or French and Indian war, in 1763, the 
province was compelled to participate in the intercolonial wars for its own 
defense. In the war that broke out in 1745, Massachusetts contributed 
largely of men and money in the capture of Louisburg and in attempts to in- 
jure Canada. It also bore its full share of the burden imposed by the French 
and Indian war, and in the ten years' quarrel between the English-American 
Colonies and Great Britain, which preceded the old war for independence, it 
took a foremost position. 

General Gage, the royal Governor of Massachusetts, had summoned a 
meeting of the General Assembly at Salem in October, 1774; but, perceiv- 
ing the increasing boldness of the people under the influence of the proceed- 
ings of the Continental Congress, he countermanded the summons. The 
members denied his right to do so, and met at Salem on the appointed day 
(October 5), ninety in number. After waiting two days for the Governor, 
who did not appear, they organized themselves into a Provincial Congress, 
with John Hancock, a wealthy merchant and ardent patriot of Boston, as 
President. Benjamin Lincoln, afterwards a general in the Continental army, 
was appointed Secretary. 

The Congress adjourned to Concord, where, on the nth, 260 members 
took their seats. They adjourned to Cambridge, and sent word to the Gov- 
ernor that for want of a legal Assembly they had formed a Provisional Con- 
vention. They freely censured the late unlawful acts of Parliament ; pro- 
tested against the casting up fortifications on Boston Neck by the Governor, 
as a menace to the liberties of the people, and expressed their loyalty to the 
King. Gage denounced them as fomenters of sedition. This measure 
stimulated their zeal. 

The Congress appointed a Committee of Safety, to whom they delegated 
large powers, authorizing them to call out the militia of the province, and to 
perform other functions of sovereignty. Another Committee was appointed, 
with authority to procure ammunition and military stores, for which purpose 
more than $60,000 were appropriated. They appointed a Receiver-general, 
into whose hands the constables and tax-collectors were directed to pay all 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 267 

moneys received by them. They also made provisions for arming the prov- 
ince, and appointed three general officers to command the militia — Jeremiah 
Preble, Artemus Ward and Seth Pomeroy. The enrolment of 12,000 min- 
ute-men was authorized. The Congress having assumed both legislative and 
executive powers, it received the willing allegiance of the people generally. 
Gage issued a proclamation denouncing these proceedings, to which no 
attention was paid. 

So ended royal authority in Massachusetts, and the beginning of inde- 
pendent self-government in that province. This was perfected by the choice 
of representatives for a new Assembly, who were elected at town meetings, 
in accordance with the directions of the Continental Congress. The citizens 
of Boston, who were scattered, met at Concord and chose their representa- 
tives. These and others met at Cambridge on July 19, 1775, when the Provin- 
cial Congress was dissolved and the new Assembly began the restoration of 
regular civil government in the colony. They chose James Warren, of 
Plymouth, as their Speaker. 

Upon the soil of Massachusetts the first Continental army was organized 
and there the first clash of arms resounded. All through the war she was 
among the foremost in the council and in the field. On March 2, 1780, a 
State constitution was adopted, and a State government was organized under 
it, with John Hancock as its first Governor, The General Assembly had 
virtually declared the province independent of the British Crown (May 2, 
1776), two months before the great Declaration was adopted. 

The Constitution adopted in 1780, and amended several times since, still 
remains the fundamental law of the Commonwealth. It was even decided 
that by a clause in its Bill of Rights African slavery was abolished. The 
people of the State ratified the National Constitution in January, 1788. 

The poverty and distress of the people caused some of them in the 
interior of the State to resist taxation. The taxes of the State amounted 
annually to the then enormous sum of $1,000,000. Artful demagogues stirred 
up the people to rebellion. The working men were arrayed by them against 
the capitalists. The government of Massachusetts was held responsible for 
every evil suffered by the people. Finally, an armed insurrection, led by 
Daniel Shays, a captain in the Continental army, broke out. He led 1,000 
men in arms. The movement soon became formidable, and General Benjamin 
Lincoln, in command of several thousand militia, suppressed it. That was in 



268 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

1786, In January, 1788, the people of the State ratified the National Consti- 
tution. 

In the division of parties at the beginning of the present century, a 
majority of the citizens of Massachusetts were of the Federal party, and, as 
a body, they opposed the war with England, which began in 1812. That war 
was disastrous to the commerce of that section of the Union. During the 
war New England furnished great numbers of seamen for the National navy, 
and swarms of privateers went out from the ports of Massachusetts. 

At a convention of delegates assembled at Hartford late in 18 14 to con- 
sider the state of the country, Massachusetts was fully represented, and one 
of its citizens (George Cabot) presided over its deliberations. Massachusetts 
and other New England States were charged with disloyalty because of their 
continued opposition to the war, but unquestionable patriotism dominated the 
intense conservatism of the people. 

In the year 1820 the district of Maine was separated from Massachu- 
setts, and made an independent commonwealth. (See Alaine.) The State 
from the beginning was one of the most prosperous in the Union ; and when, 
in 1861, civil war began, no State was more loyal and active in support of the 
Republic than Massachusetts. During the war it furnished 159,165 men to 
the National army and navy, of whom 3749 were killed in battle ; 9086 died 
from wounds and disease; 15,645 discharged for disability contracted in the 
service, and 5866 not accounted for. The State expended on account of the 
war over $30,000,000. 

Massachusetts is one of the heaviest manufacturing States in the Union, 
especially of textile fabrics. The cotton manufactures of the " Bay State " 
employed 62,903 operatives, running 4,465,290 spindles in 1880. Its fisheries 
are very extensive and productive, aggregating more than half the product 
of all New England. The State contains about 2,200 miles of railroad in 
operation, which cost almost $153,000,000. They are all prosperous, and 
form a complete network, crossing each other in all directions. 

From the beginning the education of the young was made a prime ob- 
ject in the affairs of State. In 1649 provision was made for the establish- 
ment of common schools in the province. Every township was required to 
maintain a school for instruction in reading and writing, and every town of 
one hundred families was required to have a grammar school, with a teacher 
qualified to " fit youths for the University." That University was Harvard 
College, the first of the higher seminaries of learning established in America.. 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 269 

It was liberally endowed by the Rev. John Harvard. The college was 
founded in 1637, with Henry Dunster, a Hebrew scholar, as its first president. 
There are now in the State seven universities and colleges. In 1880 there 
were 306,777 children enrolled in public schools, with an average attendance 
of 235,664. The public school expenditures in 1880 were $4,720,951. 

The population of Massachusetts in 1885 was 1,941,465, including over 
19,000 colored persons, which embrace Indians and Chinese. Boston, its 
capital, contained in 1885, 390,406. 

Immense numbers of the inhabitants of Massachusetts have emigrated 
to other portions of the Union. It is estimated that the number of persons 
who, born in that Commonwealth, have emigrated to other States, is equal, 
at least, to its present resident population. These emigrants have exercised 
a " marked influence in moulding the social and political institutions of their 
adopted States." 



m 



yssi i^ps^np 




(1623.) 

New Hampshire, one of the New England States and an 
original member of the Union, lies between latitude 40° 
42' 30" and 45° 18' north, and 70° 43' 40' and y2° 33' 
west longitude. On its narrow northern and north- 
eastern border is the province of Quebec, in the Do- 
minion of Canada. On the east is Maine and a small 
portion of the Atlantic Ocean ; on the south is Massachusetts, and on the 
west is Vermont, over which it originally claimed territorial jurisdiction. 
The Commonwealth embraces an area of 9,305 square miles, and a population 
in 1880 of 346,991, including 762 colored persons. It has only eighteen miles 
of sea-coast, and its only good harbor for large vessels is at Portsmouth. 
The surface of New Hampshire is broken and mountainous. The small 
strip of sea-coast is low and level, and a part of it is marshy for several miles 
inland. The country rises rapidly as it recedes from the coast. The group 
of lofty hills known as the " White Mountains " occupy a space of about 
twenty miles in length, chiefly in Coos County, near the north-eastern border 
of the State. The highest peak is Mount Washington, rising to the height of 
6226 feet above the sea level. There are five other peaks ranging in height 
from 4000 to 5759 feet. The region is styled " The Switzerland of America." 
The short line of sea-coast of New Hampshire was probably discovered 
by Martin Pring or Prynne, who, in April, 1603, sailed from Bristol, England, 
with two vessels, to complete discoveries begun by Gosnold. They entered 
Penobscot Bay early in June, and afterwards sailed along the coast to Mar- 
tin's (corrupted to Martha's) Vineyard, an island so called in honor of Pring, 
and because of the abundance of grapes found there. Other voyagers 
traversed the same New England coasts in a short space of time afterwards. 
Captain John Smith visited the coast of New Hampshire and the Piscataqua 
River in 1614. 

Sir Fcrdinando Gorges, an active member of the Pl}-mouth Company, set 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 271 

sail from England for America in 161 5, after the return of Captain Smith, but 
was driven back by a storm. The company acquired a new charter undet 
the title of the Council of Plymouth, from whence Gorges and Captain John 
Mason, both zealous churchmen and royalists, obtained a grant (1622) of all 
the territory between the Merrimack and the Kennebec rivers and the sea- 
coast, sixty miles inland (to the St. Lawrence River), which they designed to 
call the Province of Maine. They named the great domain " Laconia," and, 
to forestall the French settlements in the east, and to secure the country to 
Protestants, Gorges procured a grant from Sir William Alexander of the 
whole mainland eastward of the St. Croix River, excepting a small part of 
Acadia, now Nova Scotia. 







JOSIAH BARTLETT, FIRST GOVERNOR OF NEW HAMPSHIRE. 

Mason (a merchant, and afterwards a naval commander and secretary of 
the Council of Plymouth — " a man of action ") had already obtained a grant 
of land (162 1) extending from Salem to the mouth of the Merrimack, which 
he called " Mariana " ; and the same year a colony of fishermen seated them- 
selves at Little Harbor on the Piscataqua, just below the site of (present) 
Portsmouth. Other fishermen settled on the site of Dover in 1623, and very 
soon other fishing stations were planted ; but there was no permanent set- 
tlement until 1629, when Mason built a house near the mouth of the Piscata- 
qua and called the place Portsmouth. 

In the same year Mason and Gorges agreed to divide their domain in 
New England at the Piscataqua, when the former obtained a patent for the 
western portion. He had been Governor of Portsmouth in Hampshire, 



272 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

England, and he gave to his province the name of New Hampshire, and to 
tLc permanent settlement, Portsmouth, in commemoration of the place with 
V. iiich he had been associated. His domain included all islands within five 
leagues of his coast-front. He sent over other colonists, with cattle, mills, 
etc., in contemplation of a great plantation. The little settlements flour- 
ished, Dover soon taking the precedence in prosperity. The Rev. Mr. Wheel- 
wright, a brother of the notable Ann Hutchinson of Boston, had purchased 
from the Indians a tract of the wilderness, and founded Exeter. 

The progress of settlement was retarded by the death of Mason just as 
he was about to embark from England for America in 1635, bearing the 
commission of Vice-Admiral of New England. He was buried in Westmin- 
ster Abbey. His domain passed into possession of his retainers in payment 
for past services. These settlers were nearly all Churchmen. 

Very soon the intrigues, the vigor and the enterprise of the authorities 
of Massachusetts introduced among the settlers in New Hampshire an active 
Puritan element, which soon obtained control of public affairs, and in 1641 
all the settlements were annexed to Massachusetts. New Hamsphire re- 
mained a dependent of the Bay State until 1680, when the annex became a 
separate royal province. Mason's heirs in England prosecuted claims to his 
proprietary interest, which resulted in the emancipation of New Hampshire 
and the establishment there of a government in which the President and 
Council were appointed by the King, and the people elected a Legislative 
Assembly. In 1692 a royal commission established a new government, which 
continued until the old war for independence. 

The settlements in New Hampshire gradually extended westward, and, 
until 1764, it was supposed that the territory, now Vermont, was included in 
that of New Hampshire, and grants of land were made by the authorities of 
the latter province. The commission of Benning Wentworth, its first royal 
Governor (1741-1767), included all the territory " to the boundaries of his 
Majesty's other provinces," This was quite indefinite. The Governor so 
construed it that he issued grants of land to settlers between the Connecticut 
River and Lake Champlain. The Duke of York's patent in 1664 (see New 
York^ caused the authorities of the latter to claim the Connecticut River as 
its eastern boundary. A violent dispute finally arose which, at 04ie time, 
threatened a serious civil war. (See Vermont^ 

For about three-fourths of a century (1675-1750) the inhabitants suffered 
dreadfully from the Indians, who frequently made marauding and scalping 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 273 

incursions among the settlements. These incursions were often incited and 
sometimes led by the French in Canada. 

One of the most notable tragedies of the time occurred at Dover in the 
summer of 1689. There resided Richard Waldron, a native of England, who 
had lived there since 1645. He was a leading man in the province in civil 
and military affairs — a councillor, chief justice, and governor or president. 
He had taken an active part in King Philip's war, and hard greatly enraged 
the barbarians by a treacherous act at one time. He invited Indians to a 
treaty at Dover, when he seized several hundred of them, and hung or sold 
into slavery two hundred. 

For thirteen years Waldron's cruel act filled the minds and hearts of the 
barbarians with a burning desire for revenge. At length an opportunity oc- 
curred. In June, 1689, when Indians were continually visiting and passing 
through Dover on peaceful errands, a fearful plot was suddejily evolved. 
More than the usual number of Indians were in the town on a pleasant June 
day. Some of the people felt uneasy, but Major Waldron, who knew them 
well, did not suspect them of mischievous intentions. 

At that time there were five garrisoned houses at Dover. It had been 
arranged by the barbarians that on an appointed night two squads should 
go to each of the garrisoned houses in the evening and ask leave to lodge; 
then, when the people were asleep, they should open the portals of the 
houses and give a whistle, when the strange Indians should rush in and take 
their long-meditated revenge. 

Two squaws and a chief were kindly entertained by Major Waldron, and 
when all in the house had retired to sleep, the squaws opened the doors and 
gave the signal, when Indians rushed into the Major's apartment. Although 
almost fourscore years of age, the Major leaped from his bed, seized his 
sword, and applied it with so much vigor that he drove his assailants through 
two or three doors. As he was returning for other arms he was stunned by 
a blow from a hatchet, when he was seized, dragged into his hall, and, seat- 
ing him in an armchair on a long table, they scornfully asked him, "Who 
shall judge Indian now ?" Then they demanded food of the inmates of the 
house, and when they had feasted they tortured the veteran soldier to 
death. 

New Hampshire engaged earnestly in the disputes with the British min- 
istry before the kindling of the war for independence, and the people of that 
Province were the first to form an independent State government. A Pro- 



274 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

vincial Congress had assembled at Exeter on May 7, 1775, when ninety-eight 
counties, towns, parishes and boroughs were represented by deputies. Mat- 
thew Thornton was chosen its President, and Eleazer Thompson, Secretary. 
They established a post-office at Portsmouth, provided for procuring arms, 
recommended the establishment of home manufactures, commissioned Briga- 
dier-General Nathaniel Folsom first commander of the military of the Pro- 
vince, and provided for the issue of bills of credit, or paper money. They 
voted to raise three regiments, their troops then in camp before Boston to 
constitute two of them. 

In accordance with the recommendation of the Continental Congress, the 
people of New Hampshire organized a State government on January 5, 1776. 
It was intended to be temporary — to last only through the war. A perma- 
nent State government was not established until June 4, 1784. Josiah Bart- 
lett, the first signer of the Declaration of Independence, after President 
Hancock, was chosen the first Governor of the State under the National 
Constitution, 1 792-1 794. 

The people of New Hampshire took an active part in the war for inde- 
pendence. They captured the fort at New Castle in December, 1774. 
Their men were engaged in many battles, from that on Bunker's Hill to that 
at Yorktown. Generals Stark, Poor and Sullivan were particularly distin- 
guished military leaders. Their prowess was attested at Bennington, Bemis 
Heights, Saratoga, Monmouth, and Yorktown. 

Preliminary movements toward the formation of a permanent State 
government were made in 1781, when, in June, a popular convention framed 
a State Constitution for the Commonwealth, which, after undergoing many 
alterations, became the fundamental law of the State, as we have observed, 
in June, 1784. The Constitution provided that once in seven years it should 
be presented to a vote of the people on proposed amendments. This was 
done in September, 1791, and the Constitution then adopted continues to be 
the supreme law of New Hampshire. A convention sitting in Concord, from 
November 6, 1850, to April 17, 185 1, considered numerous amendments, but 
only one was adopted — removing the property qualifications of representa- 
tives. 

After the National Constitution was framed at Philadelphia, in 1787, the 
Continental Congress provided by resolution that when nine of the thirteen 
States should ratify the great instrument, it should become the fundamental 
law of the Republic. New Hampshire has the honor of giving the vote that 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 275, 

decided the fate of that instrument. Everywhere there was vehement op- 
position to it, because it would Hmit " State supremacy," and merge the 
States into one consolidated sovereignty. New Hampshire was the ninth 
State that ratified the Constitution. It was done by a small majority on 
June 21, 1788. 

Portsmouth was the seat of government while provincial authority ruled. 
The seat of the provincial government was at Exeter during the Revolution, 
and in 1805 Concord was made the State capital. New Hampshire is 
known by the sobriquet of " The Granite State." 

In the four wars in which the Republic has been engaged — namely, the 
Revolutionary, the second war for independence (1812-1815), the war with 
Mexico, and the civil war — the Commonwealth of New Hampshire contrib- 
uted freely in men and money. In its infancy it furnished 12,497 men to 
the Continental army; in its maturity, when the life of the Republic was in 
peril, it contributed for the national army 34,605 men, of whom 5508 per- 
ished in battle, and 11,039 were disabled by sickness and wounds. 

The sterility of much of the soil of New Hampshire renders agriculture 
a rather unremunerative pursuit ; but its grand and abundant water-power 
and other resources, have caused it to be a very heavy manufacturing State. 
Cotton, woollen and paper mills abound. In 1880 it employed 1,108,521 
spindles and 25,487 looms in the manufacture of cotton fabrics. In this indus- 
try it ranks second among the States in the value of its products. Its iron 
and steel manufactures are of great value. In 1882 it had lOOO miles of rail- 
ways, which cost $25,370,787. The assessed valuation of real and personal 
property in the State was nearly $201,000,000. 

New Hampshire has a well-organized system of public instruction. In 
1880 there were 64,670 children, from five to twenty-one years of age, en- 
rolled in public schools, with an average daily attendance of 48,943. The 
expenditures for public schools that year were $568,103. The State has one 
University — Dartmouth College, at Hanover. There are many normal 
schools and higher seminaries of learning for both sexes, among which Phil- 
lips' Academy, at Exeter, holds a front rank. The State has no large cities. 
Manchester, the largest, has a population of about 33,500. Concord, its cap- 
ital, has over 14,000. 



©BBtClimi 




(1633.) 

Bounded on three sides by the States of Massachusetts, 
New York and Rhode Island, and on the fourth by Long 
Island Sound and the Atlantic Ocean, lies the Common- 
wealth of Connecticut, between 41 °and 42° 3' north lati- 
tude, and 7i°55' and 73° 50' west longitude. It was one 
of the original thirteen States of the Union. Its domain embraces an area 
of 4,845 square miles. The population of Connecticut in 1880 was 622,700, of 
whom there were 11,931 colored persons, including 255 Indians. 

A large portion of the State of Connecticut is rugged and mountainous. 
An extension of the Green Mountains of Vermont crosses the western part 
of the State, and stretches almost to Long Island Sound. In the eastern 
part there is a ridge supposed to be a prolongation of the White Mountain 
range in New Hampshire. 

The principal river of the State is the Connecticut, which flows from the 
border of Canada, forms the dividing line between Vermont and New Hamp- 
shire, intersects Massachusetts and the Commonwealth to which it has given 
its name, into Long Island Sound. It is navigable to Hartford, the capital 
of the State. It flows through one of the most beautiful and picturesque 
regions of the earth. 

When Adrian Block, a skillful Dutch navigator, left Manhattan in his 
new ship Unrest, which had been built to take the place of the burnt vessel 
Tigress, in the spring of 1614 (see New York), he sailed up the East river into 
Long Island Sound and out on the Atlantic. On his way he discovered the 
Connecticut river, which he called the Versche (or fresh) Water. He sailed 
up the stream to the site of Hartford for observation, and then pursued his 
voyage. The Indian name of the river in English orthography was Quon-eh- 
tah-cut, signifying " the long river." 

The discovery of the Connecticut River by Block gave the Dutch a claim 
to the adjoining territory by the right of discovery, and so early as 1623 the 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 



77 



agent of the Dutch West India Company took formal possession of the Con- 
necticut Valley, by proclamation, in the name of the States-general of Hol- 
land. The English made a counter-claim soon afterwards, based upon a 
patent issued by King James to English subjects. 

The Dutch, with a keen eye to profit and to security against the barbar- 
ians on the eastern border of New Netherland, sent an embassy to New 
Plymouth (see MassacJuisctts) to persuade the Pilgrims to abandon Cape Cod 
Biy, and seat themselves, under jurisdiction of the Dutch, (whose language 
they had learned in Holland,) in the fertile Connecticut Valley. A Mohegan 
chief, with similar motives, joined in the request. The Pilgrims, jealous of 




JONATHAN TRUMBULL, FIRST GOVERNOR OF CONNECTICUT. 

their independence, declined; but, in 1632, Governor Edward Winslow visited 
the Connecticut Valley. His observation confirmed all the good things which 
had been said about the region, and he resolved to promote emigration thither. 

The fame of the fertile valley had already reached Old England. Two 
years before Winslow's visit, Charles I. had granted a patent to the soil of 
that region to some English noblemen, and defined the territory as extending 
westward from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean — the latter then known as 
"the South Sea." 

The Dutch now possessed a more rightful title to the country than that 
of discovery. They had purchased the valley from the Indians, built a re- 
doubt just below the site of Hartford, called Fort Good Hope, in 1633, took 



278 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

possession of it, and " set up a home with intent to plant." This was the 
first seed that germinated in the colony of Connecticut. 

The Plymouth people, though aware of the preparations made by the 
Dutch for defence, did not hesitate. In October, 1633, Captain William 
Holmes and a small company arrived in the Connecticut River in a sloop 
bearing the frame of a house. He had a commission from Governor Winslow 
to make a settlement. Though warned by the commander of the fort to- 
desist, Holmes sailed by unmolested, landed at the site of Windsor, and there 
erected his house. The Dutch sent a force the next year to drive the English 
from the valley. A parley ensued, which resulted in peaceful relations, when 
the Dutch withdrew from that region. In 1635-36 the first permanent set- 
tlement in the Connecticut Valley was made at Hartford, by emigrants from 
Massachusetts. 

In the autumn of 1635 a company of men, women and children from 
Massachusetts, with oxen and cows, traversed the rugged wilderness for fully 
one hundred miles, until they reached the valley of the Connecticut, then 
white with snow. Ice prevented a vessel, laden with supplies for them, as- 
cending the stream. They built log huts on the sites of Weathersfield and 
Hartford, and a little church at the latter place. Starvation soon menaced 
them, and some of the colony made their way to the shore ot the Sound, and 
sailed thence to Boston in a passing vessel. Those who remained suffered 
dreadfully, living for a while upon acorns. Many of the cattle died for want 
of food. 

In 1636 the Rev. Thomas Hooker, who came to Boston from Holland^ 
led a company of men, women and children into the beautiful valley. He 
wisely chose the Summer time for the migration. They had 160 head of 
cattle. The cows pastured on grassy savannas, and furnished much whole- 
some food for the wanderers. The company stood on the banks of the beau- 
tiful Connecticut on the 4th of July, and there, under the shadow of great 
trees, they sang hymns of praise and thanksgiving, and on the following 
Sabbath, Mr. Hooker preached a sermon and administered the Communion 
in the little church built the previous winter. 

In 1636 John Winthrop, son of the Governor of Massachusetts, came from 
England as Governor of the Connecticut colony. He built a fort and planted 
a settlement at the mouth of the river. The colony grew and flourished. A 
constitution for its government was framed, and was approved by a vote of 
the people on January 14, 1639. ^^ ^^'^s the first example in history of a 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 279 

written constitution organizing a government and defining its powers. Its 
leading features have been incorporated into the constitutions of all the 
States of the Republic. 

Meanwhile the existence of the colony had been menaced by the power- 
ful Pequod Indians, whose territory extended from Narragansett Bay to the 
Hudson River and over Long Island. Sassacus, then Emperor, ruled over 
twenty-six native princes. Fearing increase in the number and power of 
the English, he resolved to exterminate them. Massachusetts sent troops 
to assist their brethren. They were joined by the Mohegans, attacked 
the Pequods in their rear, and defeated and dispersed them. Sassacus and 
his followers fled westward, dreadfully smitten by their pursuers, and that 
powerful nation was almost annihilated in a day, as it were. This blow gave 
peace to New England for more than forty years. The last of the pure- 
blooded Pequods — Eunice Maurvee — died at Kent, Connecticut, in i860, at 
the age of lOO years. 

After the destruction of the Pequods there was a strong desire among 
the people of Massachusetts to settle in Connecticut. They had heard from 
the pursuers of the fugitive Indians of the beauty and fertility of the country 
stretching along Long Island Sound ; and in the autumn of 1637 a small party 
of observation encamped on the site of New Haven, where they built a hut 
and wintered. In the spring of 1638 the Rev. John Davenport and others 
went by water to the spot where the exploring party had wintered, at the 
mouth of a small stream that entered a beautiful bay. They were charmed 
with the locality and named it New Haven. On the Sabbath Mr. Davenport 
preached a sermon under a wide-spreading oak. They purchased lands of the 
Indians; framed articles of association, which they called a " Plantation Cove- 
nant," formed in accordance with the Holy Scriptures, and began an indepen- 
dent settlement without reference to any government or country on the earth. 

The little community at New Haven meditated and prayed for light 
concerning the best political organization for the government of the colony, 
which was growing by accretion. At length, in the summer of 1639, when it 
was found that they were " nearly of one mind," they assembled in a barn to 
frame a constitution of government " according to the word of God." After 
Mr. Davenport had prayed and preached, he proposed for their adoption four 
fundamental articles, namely — (i.) That the Scriptures contain a perfect rule 
for the government of men, in the family, in the church, and in the common- 
wealth; (2.) That they would be ordered by the rules which the Scriptures 



28o THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

hold forth; (3,) That their purpose was to be admitted into church-fellowship 
according to Christ, as soon as God should fit them thereto; and (4.) That 
they hold themselves bound to establish such civil order, according to God, as 
would be likely to secure the greatest good to themselves and their posterity. 
By unanimous vote these articles were adopted, when they proceeded 
to form a plan of government. It was arranged that church membership 
and freemanship should qualify a man to exercise the political franchise, to 
choose magistrates, and transact civil business of every kind; that twelve fit 
men should be chosen from the company, who should choose seven of their 
number as the seven pillars of the Church. This was done, and the seven 
" pillars " organized a Church. Their assistants, nine in number, were re- 
garded as " free burgesses," and the sixteen chose Theophilus Eaton, one of 
the explorers in 1687, magistrate for one year. Four other persons were 
chosen deputies, and these constituted the Executive and Legislative depart- 
ments of the government. It was a sort of theocracy. They built a meeting- 
house, ordained that no person should settle among them without the consent 
of the community, and in 1640 they called the settlement New Haven. The 
colony flourished alone until 1662, when it was annexed by royal charter to 
the colony in the valley. 

When monarchy was restored in England, in 1660, in the person of 
Charles II., son of the decapitated King, the people of the Connecticut 
Valley hastened to avow their allegiance and to secure a new charter. One 
was secured in 1662, which embraced both the Connecticut and New Haven 
colonies, but the union was not perfected until 1665. It gave to the people 
jurisdiction over the whole land within its limits; provided for the election 
of a Governor, deputy-governor, twelve assistants or magistrates, and ten 
deputies from each town. This constitution was so acceptable to the people 
of Connecticut that it remained their fundamental law until iSiS, when the 
present Constitution was framed. 

The union of the two colonies in Connecticut, as we have observed, was 
perfected in 1665. Prominent citizens of the New Haven colony were much 
disturbed by this summary blotting out of their Commonwealth. It had been 
foredoomed. Its intense Puritanism, and its dilatoriness in recognizing the 
authority of Charles II., had made it obnoxious to the Crown. That it had 
given shelter to the regicides was a serious count against it. Mr. Davenport, 
its real founder, was specially grieved at the unexpected turn of affairs. He 
accepted an invitation to return to Boston, and died there two years after- 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 281 

ward. The government of the united colonies was, at first, a pure democracy 
but in 1670 it became a representative one. 

After the Duke of York took possession of New Netherlands (see Nciv 
York), in 1664, commissioners were sent to look after affairs there and in 
New England. They came to secure allegiance to the Crown. The charter 

. of Connecticut secured it, and there was no trouble in that colony; but Sir 
Edmund Andros, who had been appointed Governor-General of New England 
in 1686, demanded the surrender of all the colonial charters under his juris- 
diction. Connecticut, alone, resisted. The Viceroy proceeded to Hartford 
in the autumn of 1687, with an armed force, to seize the charter and extin- 
guish the government. The people had long expected this movement, and 
leading men had made preparations to meet it. So early as the middle of 
June preceding, the Assembly directed the charter to be brought into the 
Chamber in the mahogany box in which it had been sent from England. It 
was laid on the table, and the secretary was directed to leave it there, with 
the key in it. This order was intended to give an opportunity for somebody 
to make a copy of the charter, which was done neatly on parchment — of 
course without the official sanction of the Assembly. 

Andros arrived at Hartford, with sixty soldiers, late in October. The 
Assembly was in session in the meeting-house, where he was courteously re- 
ceived at about sunset. He demanded the surrender of the charter. A 

, debate in progress was intentionally prolonged until the candles were lighted, 
when the box containing the charter] was brought in and placed on the table. 
When Andros put forth his hand to take the instrument the lights were ex- 
tinguished and the box was carried away by Captain Joseph Wadsworth, 
commander of train-bands who were near. It did not contain the original 
charter. That, Wadsworth had made a duplicate of, and concealed the 
original in a hollow oak tree. That duplicate was in the box. After the 
accession of William and Mary, in 1689, and Andros had been expelled from 
America, the original was taken from the oak and the colonial government 
resumed its functions under it. The " Charter Oak " survived until August, 
1856, when it was prostrated by a gale. 

In 1676 the General Court, or Legislature, of Connecticut was first di- 
vided into two Houses. The Governor and assistants composed the upper 
House, and the deputies regularly returned from the towns were called the 
lower House. The Governor presided in the upper House. All laws became 
so only by the mutual consent of the two Houses. 



282 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

There were two sessions of the General Court of Connecticut each year; 
and from 1701 until 1875, these, and the annual sessions which succeeded 
them, were held alternately at Hartford and New Haven. Since the latter 
year Hartford has been the sole capital of the State 

In the earlier colonial times many of the laws enacted by the authorities 
of Connecticut were very rigid. They contained enactments against every 
great vice, as well as for social regulations, and revealed the sternness of 
Puritan character and morals. They were first published in collected form 
in 1650, and were issued in blue paper covers. Copies found their way to 
England, when, on account of the color of the covers, they were first called 
" Blue Laws." After the restoration the word " blue " was applied to rigid 
moralists of every kind, especially to the Presbyterians. Hudibras says — 

" For his religion it was writ 
To match his learning and his wit — 
'Twas Presbyterian true blue.'''' 

To ridicule the Puritans of New England, a series of pretended enactments, 
very ridiculous, purporting to be extracts from the Blue Laws, were promuL 
gated and gained general belief. 

During the colonial wars Connecticut furnished its full share of men 
and money in support of the cause of the English-American colonists; and 
in the bitter disputation between the colonists and the British ministry, in the 
years preceding the old war for independence, her leading men and women 
took a very active part. Opposition to the Stamp Act ran high in that prov- 
ince; and so menacing were the actions of the people that the appointed 
stamp-distributor relinquished the office, saying "the cause is not worth 
dying for." 

The Connecticut charter made its western boundary nominally the Pacific 
Ocean. Prior occupancy by the Dutch had made an exception in favor of 
New York and New Jersey; but all territory west of the Delaware River within 
the parallels of Connecticut was claimed by that colony. An association 
called the "Susquehanna Company" was formed, with the sanction of the 
Legislature, in 1753, for the purpose of planting a settlement beyond the 
Delaware. It included the beautiful Valley of Wyoming, into which many 
families from Connecticut emigrated. In 1763 the settlement was broken up 
by hostile Indians, and the settlers made their way back to Connecticut. 
Pennsylvania took possession of the Wyoming Valley, and built a fortified 
trading house there. In 1769 forty members of the Susquehanna Company 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 283 

went there to assert their rights. Civil war ensued. The Connecticut As- 
sembly submitted the case to the ablest lawyers in England, and a decision 
was made in favor of the company. It was unheeded by the Governor of 
Pennsylvania, and civil war again began. It was soon ended by the more 
important events of the war for independence. 

The people of Connecticut were active participants in the war for inde- 
pendence from the beginning. Their Governor, Jonathan Trumbull, was the 
only colonial Governor who espoused their cause. He was considered the 
Whig leader in New England in the absence, in Congress, of the Adamses and 
Hancock. The Assembly instructed its delegates in the Continental Con- 
gress to vote for independence, a permanent union of the colonies and a 
foreign alliance. Jonathan Trumbull was the first Governor of the State of 
Connecticut. 

During the war of the Revolution the towns of Connecticut suffered 
dreadfully from marauding parties. Danbury, in the interior, was burnt and 
plundered in 1777; and in 1779, 2000 British and German marauders scourged 
its coast towns. On the 5th of July they plundered New Haven; and East 
Haven in ashes on the 6th ; destroyed Fairfield on the 8th, and plundered and 
burnt Norwalk on the 12th. In 1781 Arnold, the traitor, in the employ of 
his British master, at the head of Tories and Hessians, destroyed New London, 
on the Thames. 

Like those of the other New England States, the people of Connecticut 
were opposed to the war of 18 12, and lent its aid rather unwillingly in support 
of the government against the British. Its coasts suffered from the opera- 
tions of blockading squadrons and amphibious depredators. On April 8, 
1 8 14, six boats with 200 men from the British blockading squadron entered 
the Connecticut River, ascended it several miles, and destroyed full twenty 
vessels which had collected there as a place of supposed safety. Because of 
the lukewarmness of the people, the National Government neglected to give 
them proper protection on the coast. This neglect formed one of the grounds 
for serious complaint by the Hartford Convention. 

The Hartford Convention in 18 14 holds a conspicuous place in the history 
of our country. The Legislature of Massachusetts addressed a circular letter 
to the governors of the New England States, inviting the appointment of 
delegates to meet in convention at an early day to deliberate upon " means 
of security and defense " against dangers to which these States were exposed 
by the course of the war. It was also proposed to consider amendments to 



284 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

the National Constitution on the subject of slave representation. The 
proposition was acceded to, and Hartford, in Connecticut, was the place 
chosen for holding the convention. 

December 15, 1814, was the time appointed for the assembling of the 
convention. On that day twenty-six delegates, representing the five New 
England States, met, and appointed George Cabot, of Boston, President, and 
Theodore Dwight, secretary. They were all notable men. The sessions were 
held with closed doors and continued three weeks. The government at 
Washington was alarmed by this secret gathering of representative New 
England men, and especially by the appropriation at about that time by the 
Massachusetts Legislature of $i,oc)0,ocx) for the support of 10,000 men to re- 
lieve the militia in service, and to be, like them, under the State's control. 
All sorts of wild rumors suggesting treason were set afloat ; and the govern- 
ment sent Major Jesup and a regiment of soldiers to Hartford at the time of 
the opening of the convention, ostensibly to recruit for the regular army, but 
really to watch the supposed unpatriotic movement. 

The attention of the convention was called to a wide range of topics — 
the powers of the National Executive in calling out the militia; the dividing 
of the United States into military districts, with an ofificer of the army in 
each with discretionary power to call out the militia; the refusal of the Ex- 
ecutive to pay the militia of certain of the States called on for their own 
defense; the failure of the government to pay the militia admitted to the 
United States service; the proposition for a conscription; a bill then before 
Congress for classifying and drafting the militia; the invasion of neighboring 
territory, and the failure of the National Government to provide for the com- 
mon defense. 

It was agreed that it was expedient for the convention to prepare a gen- 
eral statement of the unconstitutional attempt of the United States govern- 
ment to infringe upon the rights of individual States in regard to the military; 
also a statement concerning the general subject of state defenses, etc. They 
also proposed amendments to the Constitution to accomplish the restriction 
of the power of Congress to declare and make war, lay embargoes, admit new 
States, and alterations concerning slave representation and taxation. 

These were all legitimate subjects for discussion by patriotic men. The 
labors of the convention ended on January 4, 1815, and on the next day it 
adjourned, but with an impression that circumstances might call for a re- 
assembling of that body. For that reason the seal of secresy on their pro- 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 285 

ceedings was not removed. This gave wide scope for conjecture, suspicion 
and misrepresentations; and for many years, in the realm of politics, the 
term " Hartford Convention Federalist " conveyed much reproach. 

Connecticut took an active and patriotic part in the late Civil War, Her 
chief magistrate, William A. Buckingham, was one of the most energetic 
" war governors " of the time. It furnished the National army with 54,882 
thoroughly equipped men, of whom 1094 men and ninety-seven ofificers were 
killed in action ; 666 men and forty-eight officers died from wounds, and 3246 
men and sixty-three officers died from disease. 

Connecticut is essentially a manufacturing State, and exceeds any other 
in the variety of its industries. It has about 1000 miles of railways in opera- 
tion. The State is thoroughly equipped for dispensing the blessings of edu- 
cation to all classes of its population. It has nearly 1700 district schools, 
with a school population of 139,000, of whom nearly 120,000 are enrolled in 
the public schools. It has high schools in all its cities; and its expenditure 
for public schools in 1885 was $1,376,000. There is a State normal school, 
many collegiate schools, and seminaries for both sexes, and three universities 
or colleges, all well endowed. Yale College, at New Haven, is one of the 
oldest of the higher institutions of learning in the Republic. 

Several nicknames have been applied to Connecticut — the " Free-stone 
State," the "Nutmeg State," the ''Land of Steady Habits." Morality, 
shrewdness, patriotism, independence, and self-reliance are characteristics 
which have been attributed to the people of Connecticut. Halleck, one of 
its sons, wrote more than half a century ago : 

" They love their land because it is their own, 
And scorn to give aught other reason why; 
Would shake hands with a king upon his throne. 
And think it kindness to his majesty — 
A stubborn race, fearing and flattering none. 
Such are they nurtured, such they live and die : 
All — but a few apostates, who are meddling 
With merchandize, pounds, shillings, pence and peddling-, 

*' Or wandering through the southern countries teaching 
The A, B, C from Webster's spelling-book; 
Gallant and godly, making love and preaching, 
And gaining, by what they call ' hook and crook. 
And what the moralists call ' overreaching,' 
A decent living. The Virginians look 
Upon them with as favorable eyes 
As Gabriel on the devil in Paradise." 



(1634.) 




Maryland is one of the Central Atlantic States, and an 
original member of the Union. Pennsylvania on the 
north, the State of Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean 
on the east, on the south, south-west and west, Virginia 
and West Virginia, and on the north-west West Virginia 
form its boundaries. It lies between 37° 53' and 39° 44' 
north latitude, and 75° 2' and 79° 30' west longitude, and embraces 12,210 
square miles of territory. In the census of 1880 Maryland ranked twenty- 
three among the States ia population, the number being 934,943, of whom 
210,250 were colored. 

Maryland is unequally divided by Chesapeake Bay. Its eastern portion, 
lying between the Chesapeake and Delaware bays and the Atlantic, is mostly 
level, and portions of it swampy. The western portion, lying between the 
Chesapeake and the Potomac River, which separates it from the Virginias, is 
for the most part level as far north as Washington City. Above that point the 
country rises in terraces, and soon assumes the form of rugged hills and quite 
lofty mountains with fertile vallies. The Blue Ridge, and other ranges of 
the AUeghanies, pass through the north-west portion of the State. One 
mountain peak rises to an altitude of 2500 feet above tide-water. 

The first European dweller in Maryland was William Clayborne, who 
•was one of the early settlers in Virginia. The Governor of Virginia gave 
him authority, in 1627, to explore the head of Chesapeake Bay; and in 163 1 
King Charles granted him a license to make discoveries and to trade with the 
Indians in that region. Under this authority he established a trading post 
on Kent Island, in Chesapeake Bay, not far from the site of (present) An- 
napolis. That was in 1631. 

Earlier than this, George Calvert, an English Roman Catholic, knighted 
by James I. in 161 7, and made an Irish peer, in 1624, with the title of Baron 
of Baltimore, had obtained from his sovereign (1622) a patent to plant a 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 287 

Roman Catholic colony in America. Failing in some of his projects, he 
applied for a charter for the domain between North and South Virginia. 
(See Virginia^ Before it was completed Lord Baltimore died. The King, 
also, was dead, but his son, Charles, granted to Calvert's son and successor, 
Cecil (June 20, 1632), a patent for that region. In honor of Henrietta Maria, 
or Mary, the queen of Charles I., the name of Mary's Land was given to the 
domain. 

The Government of the province was made independent of the Crown — 
strictly proprietary; and equality in civil and religious freedom was secured 
to every Christian sect except Unitarians. 

Lord Baltimore appointed his half-brother, Leonard Calvert, Governor 




THOMAS JOHNSTON, FIRST GOVERNOR OF MARYLAND. 

of his American domain. That kinsman, with another brother, sailed from 
Cowes, Isle of Wight, on November 22, 1633, with "very near twenty other 
gentlemen of very good fashion," wrote Lord Baltimore to a friend, and 
"three hundred laboring men," accompanied by two Jesuit priests. The 
Calverts and the other " gentlemen," and some of the laboring men, were 
Roman Catholics, but a greater portion of the latter were Protestants. They 
encountered a terrific storm. The two vessels — the Ai-k and the Dove — were 
separated by the tempest, but met at Barbadoes, and finally entered the 
mouth of the Potomac River together in February, 1634. 

The emigrants sailed up the Potomac a short distance and landed upon 
an island which they named St. Clements, and were there visited by some of 



288 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

the natives. Thence the Governor made some explorations, and finally en- 
tered into a treaty with the barbarians for the purchase of a little territory 
at a pleasant spot near where the Potomac entered Chesapeake Bay. With 
imposing religious ceremonies by the priests, in the presence of Indians, it 
was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and the spot where they settled was 
named St. Mary. A year later they estabhshed the capital of the colony 
there ; and there the Legislative Assembly, composed of the whole adult male 
population, met. As population increased by immigration, a representative 
government was established, the people being allowed to send as many dele- 
gates as they pleased. Thus was planted the germs of the Commonwealth 
of Maryland. 

When Lord Baltimore claimed jurisdiction over Kent and other islands 
in Chesapeake Bay, Clayborne, the early settler, refused to acknowledge his 
title, he having, as he said, an earlier one from the King. Baltimore ordered 
his arrest, and sent two vessels with armed men for the purpose. Clayborne 
had a vessel filled with armed retainers. A battle ensued ; the assailants 
were repulsed and one of them was killed. Clayborne was indicted for and 
found guilty of murder and other high crimes. He fled to Virginia. The 
Governor of Virginia refused to give him up. Kent Island was seized and 
confiscated by the Maryland authorities. The King severely reprimanded 
Baltimore for violating royal commands in driving Clayborne from his right- 
ful possessions. The Lords Commissioners of Plantations decided in favor 
of Baltimore, but Clayborne afterwards stirred up the people to rebellion. 

The first statutes of Maryland were enacted in 1637. Three years later 
a company of Puritans, who had been driven out of Virginia, settled in Mary- 
land, and soon showed a spirit of resistance to the authorities. Clayborne 
now reappeared at Kent Island, and stirred up the Indians against the white 
settlers and kindled a civil war among the people. The insurgents, with the 
disaffected Indians, drove the Governor and his Council into Virginia, and 
the rebels held the reins of power for a year and a half. The rebellion was 
crushed in the summer of 1647, when the Governor returned. The Puritans 
in Maryland called their chief settlement (on the site of Annapolis) Provi- 
dence. 

Governor Calvert died in 1647, and on the death of the King, in 1649, 
Lord Baltimore, professing to be a Protestant, appointed William Stone, a 
warm friend of Parliament, Governor; but the Parliament, doubting Balti- 
more's sincerity, removed Stone, and appointed commissioners (of whom 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 289 

Clayborne was one) to rule Maryland. They put Kent and Palmer islands 
in the possession of Clayborne. On the dissolution of the Long Parliament, 
Cromwell restored the proprietary rights of Lord Baltimore, and for some 
time civil and religious disputes ran high in the province. The Puritans, 
being in the majority, disfranchised Roman Catholics and members of the 
Church of England, and persecuted Quakers. A distressing civil war ensued. 
In a sharp battle near Providence, the troops of the Governor, who were 
mostly Roman Catholics, were defeated, and many were killed or made pris- 
oners. Four were executed on a charge of treason. Anarchy ensued, but 
under the rule of judicious Governor Josiah Fendal, comparative quiet 
reigned until 1660, when the people, boldly asserting popular liberty, as- 
sumed the exercise of the legislative powers of the colony, and gave Fendal 
the commission of Governor. 

On the restoration of monarchy in England (1660), the King reinstated 
Lord Baltimore in all his rights, when the latter proclaimed a general pardon 
of all political offenders. For thirty years afterwards Maryland enjoyed 
repose, prospered, and rapidly increased in population and wealth. 

Lord Baltimore (the third) died in 1675, and was succeeded by his son 
Charles. He and his successors continued to administer the Government of 
the province, with some interruption, until the period of the old war for in- 
dependence. 

The revolution in England in 1688 shook the province to its foundations. 
The deputy governor hesitated to proclaim William and Mary, when a rest- 
less spirit named Coode, making this hesitation a pretext, excited the people 
by giving wings to a story that the civil magistrates and the Roman Catholics 
were about to join the Indians in the extermination of the Protestants. Im- 
mediately the old religious feud, which had been smouldering, burst into an 
intense flame. The Protestants, armed and led by Coode, marched upon the 
capital of the province, took forcible possession of it (September, 1689), and 
assumed the administration of the Government. They called a popular Con- 
vention and invested it with legislative functions; and by tl^at body Mary- 
land was governed until June, 1691, when the British sovereign, ignoring the 
rights of Lord Baltimore, made Maryland a royal province and appointed a 
Governor. In 1694 the capital was transferred from St. Mary to Providence, 
which a few years afterward received the name of Annapolis, in honor of 
Queen Anne. It has remained the political capital of the Commonwealth 

ever since. 

7 



290 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

In 1716 the proprietary rights of the then late Lord Baltimore were le- 
stored to his infant son and heir, and the original form of Government was 
reestablished and so remained until the Revolution in 1775. 

During the bitter controversy between the British-American colonies 
and Great Britain before the war for independence, the people of Maryland 
were very patriotic, but, at the same time, were conservative. They ex- 
pressed in strong terms their sympathy with patriotic movements in the other 
colonies, especially with the people of Boston, on account of their sufferings 
inflicted because of the destruction of tea in their harbor late in 1773. On 
the morning of October 15, 1774, a ship entered the harbor of Annapolis with 
seventeen packages of tea on board. The people were greatly excited, and 
prepared to burn the vessel and her cargo. Her owner, Anthony Stewart, 
declared that he had no intention to violate any non-importation agreement. 
The people would not listen, and Charles Carroll advised Stewart to burn the 
vessel with his own hands, and so quiet the public disturbance. It was done, 
when the multitude, who had gathered from the surrounding country, cheered 
and dispersed. 

The people of Maryland were ably represented in the Continental Con- 
gress from the beginning. They adopted the American Association, or 
general non-importation agreement, recommended by the Congress of 1774.. 
On July 26, 1775, a Convention assembled at Annapolis, and formed a tem- 
porary Government, which, recognizing the Continental Congress as invested 
with a general supervision of public affairs, managed its own internal affairs 
through a provincial Committee of Safety, and subordinate committees ap- 
pointed in every county, parish or hundred. It directed an enrolment of 
forty companies of minute-men, and authorized the emission of bills of credit 
to the amount of over $500,000. The Convention resolved to sustain Massa- 
chusetts, and meet force by force if necessary. 

During the French and Indian war Maryland had borne its full share of 
the burden imposed by it, and Annapolis was the scene of a Convention of 
colonial governors, in the spring of 1755, to consult with General Braddock 
about the campaign for that year. In the war for independence her power- 
ful influence was felt in the council and in the field at all times. She hastened 
to comply with the recommendation of the Continental Congress to form an 
independent State Government. On August 14, 1776, a State Constitution 
was adopted, and Thomas Johnson, who nominated Washington as Com- 
mander-in-chief of the Continental forces, was elected the first Governor of 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 291 

the independent Commonwealth on February 13, 1777. At AnnapoHs, at the 
close of the great struggle, Washington resigned his military commission to 
Congress, then in session there, in December, 1783. 

The State Constitution was ratified by the people in November, 1776, 
and the first State Legislature assembled at Annapolis on February 5, 1777. 
The Constitution was amended in 1802, and again in 1836; and in 1851 almost 
an entirely new one was adopted. During the war the " Maryland Line " of 
troops won a high reputation. The people of the State, by a handsome ma- 
jority, ratified the National Constitution in April, 1788. 

During the second war for independence (1812-15) the coasts of Mary- 
land suffered greatly from the operation of British marauders under Admiral 
Cockburn, and the State suffered a serious invasion by the British in the 
summer of 18 14. They swept across the State from the shores of Chesapeake 
Bay toward the National Capital, and at Bladensburg, four miles from Wash- 
ington city, a severe battle was fought. The Americans were defeated. The 
invaders pressed on to the Capital and burned the public buildings and other 
property in August. A British force landed at North Point in September, 
pushed on toward Baltimore, and were defeated and driven to their ships; 
and after an unsuccessful attack on Fort McHenry at Baltimore they were 
repulsed. 

Maryland, as a slave-labor State, and ranking among the border States 
in relation to that system, was greatly agitated concerning secession from 
the Union, The opposing parties, for and against secession, were very strong 
and earnest. A capital plan of the leaders in the secession movement was 
the seizure of the National Government, its buildings, its archives and its 
treasury; and it was important to secure Maryland as an accomplice in the 
movement. The District of Columbia, the seat of the National Government, 
had once been a part of the territory of Maryland. Emissaries from the 
cotton-growing States were early within its borders plying their seductive 
arts. In Baltimore they found numerous and powerful sympathisers. But 
the Governor, Thomas H. Hicks, was a sturdy opponent of their schemes. 

It is said that on the ist of January, 1861, there were no less than 12,000 
men in Maryland pledged to follow their leaders in seizing Washington city. 
The Governor found himself powerfully supported by an eminently loyal 
people among the so-called " masses " — the " common people." The Seces- 
sionists urged him to call a session of the Legislature. Perceiving the danger 
to be apprehended from the action of a body largely made up of slaveholders. 



292 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 

the Governor refused. He had been informed that the members of the Leg- 
islature had already perfected a plan for " carrying Maryland out of the 
Union." This and cognate facts Governor Hicks set forth in an address to 
the people of the State (January 6, 1861). Henry Winter Davis, a most zeal- 
ous Union man, had just published a powerful appeal against the assembling 
of the Legislature or a Border State Convention. 

The Secessionists denounced Governor Hicks as a traitor, but he was 
sustained by a majority of the people. A strong Union party was organized. 
Maryland became a great battle-field of opposing opinion, and it also became 
the theatre of struggles between hostile armies. The battles of South Moun- 
tain, Antietam and Monocacy were fought on its soil, and it suffered much 
from the invasion of Confederable marauding parties. 

The Union men of Maryland triumphed. In the space of four years 
from the breaking out of the Civil War, Slavery was abolished from its bor- 
ders, not only by the President's proclamation, but by the constitutional act 
of its own authorities. In October, 1864, a new Constitution was ratified by 
the people. It abolished Slavery, and disfranchised all who had aided or 
encouraged rebellion against the National Government. The authorities of 
the State furnished to the National army during the war 49,730 men. 

Maryland is becoming a considerable manufacturing State. In 1880 it 
had 6787 manufacturing establishments, employing 74,945 workmen, with 
$58,743,384 capital invested, and aggregate products valued at $106,780,563. 
It had over lOOO miles of railways in operation within its borders, and the 
Chesapeake and Ohio canal traverses the State from the District of Colum- 
bia to Cumberland. Baltimore is its only great city, and contained a popula- 
tion, in 1880, of 332,313- 

Maryland had in 1880 enrolled in its public schools 162,431 pupils, with 
an average daily attendance of 85,449. It expended that year for public 
schools $1,395,284. The State contained nine universities or colleges, six 
of which belong to the Roman Catholics. 




(1636.) 

Rhode Island, the smallest of the thirty-eight Common- 
wealths which comprise the Republic of the United States 
of America, was one of the original States of the Union. 
Its history, in detail, is very interesting. The Atlantic 
Ocean washes its entire southern border; Massachusetts 
lies on its northern and eastern borders, and Connecticut 
■bounds its western limits. It lies between 41° 18' and 42° 3' north latitude, 
and 71° 8' and 71° 53' west longitude, and embraces an area of 1250 square 
miles. The population of Rhode Island in 1880 was 276,531, of which 6,592 
were colored. 

The State of Rhode Island is divided into two unequal parts by Narra- 
gansett Bay, which penetrates the land to Providence, about thirty miles from 
the sea. Its topography is diversified, a part of the country being hilly and 
other portions level and sandy or marshy. The great Bay is thickly studded 
with picturesque islands, and its shores are clustered with historic associations. 
The island of Rhode Island is mostly elevated ground, and the climate is most 
salubrious. Its southern portion is a famous summer resort. Its name is an 
English corruption of the Dutch " Roodt Eylandt " — Red Island. They so 
called it because of the red cranberry marshes which they saw on the shores 
of Narragansett Bay. The Indians called it Aquiday, or Aquitneck. 

It is conceded to be a fact of history that Scandinavian navigators visited 
the shores of America in the loth and nth centuries, and it is believed that 
Rhode Island was a part of the country visited by them and called " Vineland " 
(see Massachusetts). An ancient round stone tower at Newport has elicited 
much investigation and disputation, some supposing it to have been erected by 
the Northmen, and others that it was built for a windmill by the early Eng- 
lish settlers on the island. It stands upon seven stone pillars. The masonry 
of the structure is admirable. 

It is claimed that Verrazani, an Italian in the French service, visited and 



294 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 



explored Narragansett Bay in 1524, and had intercourse with the natives 
there, whom he found very numerous. The Dutch trapped on the shores of 
the great Bay some time before any EngHsh settlers were seated there. At 
that time Canonicus, King of the Narragansetts, ruled the domain, and treated 
with the Pilgrims at New Plymouth. 

Roger Williams, an eminent English divine and scholar, became the 
founder of the Commonwealth of Rhode Island. He came to Boston in 1630, 
with his wife, Mary, a sweet young English woman, who was a willing sharer in 
his joys and sorrows. He soon became obnoxious to ultra-Puritans at Bos- 
ton, particularly to the bigoted cler^)', because of his liberal views concerning 




ROGER WILLIAMS, I'ROMINENT IN THE HISTORY OF RHODE ISLAND,. 

the freedom of conscience in religious and political affairs. He had taken, 
orders in the Church of England, but, wayward in all things, he left that 
communion, became an extreme Puritan, and adopted the independent habits 
of " Seekers." He was a thorough separatist, and because his brethren 
in Massachusetts were not as radical as he, he assailed their theocracy. He 
became obnoxious to the authorities in Church and State at Boston, and 
went to Salem. He soon made enemies there, and went to Plymouth, where 
he became acquainted with chiefs of the barbarians and learned their language. 
Returning to Salem, he there promulgated his theological views so boldly^ 
that in the autumn of 1635 the General Court of Massachusetts ordered him 
to quit the colony in six months. Observing with alarm that his doctrines- 
were spreading, it was soon determined to seize him and send him to England. 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 295 

Forewarned, Williams left his home and family at midwinter, and for 
fourteen weeks he wandered in the snows and dreariness of the region of Nar- 
ragansett Bay, where five companions joined him on the eastern bank of 
Seekonk River. They went down the stream to the head of Narragansett Bay, 
and at a fine spring they planted the seed of a colony, and called the place 
" Providence." A democratic form of government was established, which al- 
lowed no interference with the liberty of conscience — " Soul liberty." Seve- 
ral other persons from Massachusetts joined them. 

When Williams came to Boston he was inclined to become an Anabaptist. 
Now, believing baptism by immersion to be the only scriptural way, he pro- 
ceeded to establish a Baptist Church. In March, 1639, he was so baptized by 
a layman, when he proceeded to immerse eleven others. So was established 
the first Baptist Church in America. But Williams, a '* seeker " after truth, 
soon doubting the validity of his own baptism and that of the others, with- 
drew from the Church and never re-entered it. 

For several years the Government of the colony was a pure democracy, 
transacting its business by means of town meetings, until a charter was ob- 
tained in 1644. From the beginning every settler Avas required to sign an 
agreement to give active or passive obedience to all ordinances that should be 
made by a majority of the inhabitants — heads of families — for the public 
good. 

In the year 1638 William Coddington and others, driven from Massa- 
chusetts by persecution, bought of the Indians Aquiday, or Aquitneck (now 
Rhode Island), and made settlements on the sites of Newport and Ports- 
mouth. A third settlement was formed at Warwick, on the main land, in 
1643, by a party of whom John Greene and Samuel Gorton were leaders. 
The same year Williams went to England to procure a charter for the colony, 
and brought one back with him in 1644. It united the settlements at Provi- 
dence and on Rhode Island under one Government, called " the Rhode Island 
and Providence Plantations." 

So the Commonwealth of Rhode Island was established, but the Govern- 
ment did not go into operation until 1647, when the first General Assembly, 
composed of the collective freemen of the several plantations, met at Ports- 
mouth (May 19), and framed and adopted a code of laws for the administra- 
tion of Government. The legislative power was vested in a Court of Com- 
missioners, consisting of six persons chosen by each of the four towns — 
Providence, Newport, Warwick and Portsmouth. Cromwell confirmed this 



296 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

royal charter in 1655, and a new one was obtained from Charles H. in 1663'^ 
under which the Commonwealth of Rhode Island was governed 180 years. 

In the fall of 1654 Williams was chosen Governor of Rhode Island. At 
that time the people were less tolerant than formerly, and they became in- 
censed against fanatical persons who came among them calling themselves 
Friends or Quakers. Williams refused to persecute them, but when George 
Fox, an educated man and founder of that sect, visited Rhode Island and 
preached there, in 1672, Williams engaged in a public debate with him and 
two others at Newport. 

When King Philip's war broke out, in 1675, the founder of Rhode Island 
watched the progress of the tempest with great anxiety. Although he was 
then seventy-six years of age, he accepted a Captain's commission, drilled a 
company at Providence, and erected defenses there for women and children. 
But the colony suffered greatly at the hands of the barbarians. They burned 
Providence and Warwick. On the soil of Rhode Island, near Kingston, the 
decisive battle that ended the war was fought. 

When Sir Edmund Andros, Viceroy of New England, began his tyrannical 
career, he seized the charter of Rhode Island (see Connecticut). It was re- 
stored after the accession to the throne of William and Mary in 1689, and the. 
people re-adopted the seal of the province — an anchor for a device, and Hope 
for a motto. 

Rhode Island was too liberal and tolerant for the other New England 
colonies, and when the New England Confederacy was formed in 1643 Rhode 
Island was excluded. Yet it was always ready and helpful in defending those 
colonies against barbaric foes; and from the beginning of King William's 
war its history is identified with that of New England. It took an active part 
in the struggles of Great Britain and France for supreme dominion in America. 
It furnished many troops and seamen. In 1756 the colony had fifty priva- 
teersmen at sea, manned by 1500 seamen. They cruised along the American 
shores and in the West Indies. 

The people of Rhode Island were equally conspicuous for their patriot- 
ism and zeal during the long disputes with the mother country preceding the 
old war for independence, and they bore their full share of the burden and 
the honors of that war. The first Commander-in-chief of the Continental 
navy was Esek Hopkins, a native of Rhode Island; and William Whipple was 
one of the boldest of her naval commanders. 

One of the most daring events of the Revolution, in Rhode Island, was 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. ' 297 

the seizing and carrying away of General Prescott, a British General, by 
Colonel Barton and a whaleboat's crew, on a warm summer night, and depos- 
iting him at Washington's headquarters at New Windsor, on the Hudson 
River. In the summer of 1778 there was a battle on Quaker Hill, towards the 
north end of the island, when the British were pushed back, but the Americans 
withdrew to the main land. 

When the several colonies were forming State governments in 1776-80, 
Rhode Island went forward under its royal charter, without framing a State 
Constitution. It had been under British rule a greater portion of the period 
of the war. British and Hessian troops took possession of it in December, 
1776, borne there by a squadron under Admiral Parker. They occupied the 
island until near the close of 1779. In 1780 a French army, under the 
Count de Rochambeau, landed at Newport. They came as allies of the 
Americans in their struggle for freedom and independence. After the war 
Newport contended successfully with New York and Boston for commercial 
supremacy. 

The idea of State supremacy had taken such hold of the public mind in 
Rhode Island, that a majority of the people were opposed to the National 
Constitution framed in 1787, and that State was the last to ratify it. It re- 
mained out of the Union until May 29, 1790, when it yielded and took its place 
in the Republic. 

Rhode Island furnished many brave and skilled seamen during the war 
of 1812-15. Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, who won a decisive victory 
on Lake Erie in September, 1813, was from Rhode Island. So, also, were 
many of his officers and men. 

Efforts w^ere repeatedly made for several years to replace the old royal 
charter for a State Constitution, but failed. Under the charter the right to 
vote was limited to men who possessed a small amount of real estate, and to 
the eldest sons. Attempts to obtain reforms by the action of the Legislature 
having failed, " Suffrage Associations " were formed in different parts of the 
State in the winter of 1840 and 1841. They met in mass Convention at Prov- 
idence in July following, and authorized their State Committee to call a con- 
vention to frame a Constitution. The Convention assembled on the 4th of 
October and framed such an instrument. It was submitted to the people 
late in December, when it was claimed that a vote equal to a majority of 
the adult male population of the State had been given in its favor. 

Under the State Constitution, State oflficers were chosen, April 18, 1842, 



298 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 

■with Thomas W. Dorr, a distinguished lawyer, as Governor; and on May 3 
they attempted to organize the new Government at Providence. The so- 
called " Legal Government," chosen under the charter, resisted the movement. 
That party was led by Governor King, the constitutional party was led by 
Governor Dorr. Portions of the " suffrage party," armed, attempted to seize 
the arsenal at Providence, but were frustrated by a military force led by Gov- 
ernor King. Another armed party, several hundred strong, and led by Dorr, 
assembled a month later ten miles from Providence. They, also, were dis- 
persed by King. 

Governor Dorr was soon afterwards arrested on a charge of high trea- 
son, was convicted and sentenced to imprisonment for life, but was released 
in 1847 under a general amnesty act. 

Meanwhile the Legislature had called (February 6, 1841) a Convention to 
frame a new Constitution. The Convention agreed upon one in February, 
1842. It was submitted to the people and rejected. Another Convention 
framed another Constitution, which was ratified almost unanimously and 
went into effect in May, 1843. 

A controversy concerning boundary lines between Massachusetts and 
Rhode Island, begun in colonial times, was settled by mutual concessions in 
1 86 1. In the spring of that year Rhode Island was among the earliest of the 
States to respond to the President's call for troops to suppress the rebellion. 
During the Civil War, that little State, then with a population of only 
175,000, furnished to the National army 23,711 soldiers. 

The agricultural productions of Rhode Island are not very extensive. 
It is a manufacturing State, especially in textile fabrics and iron and steel 
products. In the manufacture of cotton goods the State stands second in 
the Union, having, in 1880, 30,274 looms, with 1,649,295 spindles. In that year 
22,228 persons were employed in the manufacture of cotton goods, and 161,694 
bales of cotton were consumed. There were then within the little State 211 
miles of railroads in operation. Its expenditures for public instruction were 
$530,167. It had 42,489 children enrolled in its public schools, with an aver- 
age daily attendance of 27,453. The State is sometimes denominated " Lit- 
tle Rhody." 

Providence, one of the capitals of Rhode Island, has a population of 
about 120,000, and Newport, the other capital, has over 20,000. 




(1638.) 

The smallest State in the Republic next to Rhode Island 
is Delaware, having an area of 2050 square miles. It is 
between latitude 38° 28' and 39° 50' north, and longitude 
75° and 75° 46' west. Its eastern shores are laved by the 
Delaware River and Bay and the Atlantic ocean. On 
the narrow northern boundary is Pennsylvania, and on 
its west and south borders is Maryland. The population of Delaware, in 
1880, was 146,608, of whom 26,448 were colored. 

In the northern part of Delaware the country is rolling, beautiful, pro- 
ductive and healthy. In the lower portion is a large cypress swamp and some 
smaller ones. Delaware and the eastern shore of Maryland form a low penin- 
sula. 

The name of the State of Delaware was derived from Lord de la Warr, 
who, in 1609, was appointed Governor of Virginia, and who, in 1610, sailed 
into a broad bay, which was named De la Warr (Delaware) Bay. Henry 
Hudson had entered it and discovered Delaware River in 1609. Samuel 
Godyn and Samuel Blommaert, Directors of the Dutch West India Com- 
pany, purchased of the Indians a tract of land stretching along Dela- 
ware Bay, from Cape Henlopen north, over thirty miles, and two miles in the 
interior. They were invested with patroon privileges. Captain David Pieter- 
sen de Vries, an eminent Dutch navigator in the employ of the Dutch East 
India Company, and a friend of Patroon Godyn, also became a patroon, and 
founded a colony near the site of Lewes, on Delaware Bay, which he called 
Swaanendael. There thirty emigrants, with cattle and agricultural imple- 
ments, were seated, but the next year they were all murdered by the Indians 
and their dwellings were laid waste. 

In the year 1638 a colony of Swedes and Finns bought land of the 
Indians along Delaware Bay and River, from Cape Henlopen north to the 
Falls of the Delaware, near Trenton. Peter Minuit, formerly Director of 



300 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 



New Netherland (see Nczv York), was at the head of the colonists. There 
were fifty emigrants. They landed at Cape Henlopen. Governor Kieft, at 
Amsterdam, demanded of Minuit what his object was. He answered, " To 
plant a colony." Kieft protested and threatened, but the Swedes paid no 
attention to him. They built a fort on the site of (present) Wilmington, and 
called it Christina, in honor of the Swedish queen. So was planted the germ 
of the State of Delaware. 

In 1640 Hollanders joined the eastern settlers, and they gave the West 
India Company much trouble, for they were regarded as intruders on the 
domain of New Netherland. The settlement was called " New Sweden," and 




THOMAS M'KEAN, PROMINENT CHARACTER IN HISTORY OF DELAWARE. 



flourished. In 1655 Governor Stuyvesant with a military force seized the 
domain, and incorporated the colonists with those of New Netherland. 

Lord Baltimore, proprietor of Maryland, claimed all the territory on the 
west side of the Delaware River and Bay to latitude 40°, and settlers from 
Maryland attempted to drive away the settlers in the present State of Dela- 
ware. When, finally, William Penn obtained a grant of Pennsylvania, he was 
very desirous of owning the land on Delaware Bay to the sea. He obtained 
a title from the Duke of York (his personal friend) to the country for twelve 
miles around (present) New Castle, and to the land between that tract and 
the sea. The formal surrender of this territory to Penn occurred in the 
presence of all the settlers in October, 1682. 

Lord Baltimore still pressed his claim; but in 1685 the Lords of Trade 
and Plantations made a decision in Penn's favor. Afterwards all conflicting 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 301 

claims were adjusted by compromise. The portion of his domain, now the 
State of Delaware, Penn called the " Three Lower Counties on the Delaware " 
— New Castle, Kent and Sussex. They were governed as a part of Pennsyl- 
vania for about twenty years afterwards, each county having six delegates in 
the Legislature. Then Penn allowed them a separate Legislature — home 
rule — but not a separate Government. The Governor of Pennsylvania was 
their chief magistrate until 1776, when the inhabitants declared it an inde- 
pendent State. 

It is difficult to draw the line of demarcation between the first permanent 
settlements in the Provinces of Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, for 
they bore such intricate relations to each other that they may be regarded 
as parts of an episode in the history of American colonization. It is only 
when Delaware proclaimed itself an independent State that its distinct history 
begins. 

The people of Delaware took an active part in the political discussions 
preceding the old war for independence. The " Three Lower Counties " sent 
Caesar Rodney and Thomas McKean as delegates to the first Continental 
Congress, that assembled at Philadephia in September, 1774. The people 
were earnestly in favor of independence, and on the 15th of June, 1776, the 
General Assembly of Delaware unanimously approved the resolutions of 
Congress of May 15, declaring that as the King of Great Britain had made 
war upon the colonies, and had given no heed to their humble petition for a 
redress of grievances, no further authority under the Crown should be ac- 
knowledged, but should be exercised by the people of the colonies. They 
overturned the proprietary Government within the borders of Delaware, sub- 
stituted its name on all occasions for that of the King, and gave new instruc- 
tions to its delegates in Congress, which left them at liberty to vote, respect- 
ing independence, according to their judgment. 

On the 20th of Spetember, 1776, the people of the " Three Lower Coun- 
ties " adopted a State Constitution, and then organized a State Government 
: under the title of Delaware. During the old war for independence her sons 
were among the best soldiers, and won great distinction. The First Delaware 
Regiment was particularly noted for its discipline. Captain Caldwell of that 
regiment was a thorough disciplinarian, was greatly distinguished for his 
daring spirit and was very popular. He was very fond of cock-fighting. The 
fine discipline of the regiment was attributed to him ; and whenever an officer 
was sent to recruit men to fill vacancies, it was a saying that they had gone 



302 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

home for more of Caldwell's game-cocks. The Captain insisted that no cock 
■could be truly game unless its mother was a blue hen, and the name of " Blue 
Hen's chickens" was substituted for "game-cocks." From this circumstance 
the Commonwealth received the nickname of the " Blue Hen State." It is 
also called the " Diamond State," from its small size and intrinsic value. 

Delaware was the first State that ratified the National Constitution. 
That act was done on December 7, 1787. It bore its share of the burden of 
the second war for independence (18 12-15), and it furnished one of the Com- 
missioners (Mr. Bayard) who negotiated peace with great Britain at Ghent, 
late in 18 14. 

Although Delaware was a slave-labor State, it took very little part in the 
secession movements at the beginning of 1861. It was still more within the 
embrace of the free-labor States than Maryland. Its Governor, its repre- 
sentatives in the National Senate, and many leading politicians sympathized 
with the Secessionists, but the people in general were conservative and 
loyal. 

The Legislature convened at Dover on June 3, 1861, when the Governor 
in his message charged the impending troubles upon the abolitionists of the 
North, saying that " from pulpits, rostrums and schools, by press and people," 
they had waged " a persistent war upon more than $2,000,000,000 of prop- 
erty " — meaning slaves. On the following day a commissioner from Missis- 
sippi was permitted to address the Legislature, who urged the right and 
duty of secession from the free-labor States. The House by unanimous vote, 
and a majority of the Senate, expressed their unqualified disapproval of the 
remedy for existing evils proposed by the emissary from Mississippi. 

Thus ended the mission of the representative of the Mississippi Seces- 
sionists. This loyal position Delaware maintained throughout the war that 
ensued, and gave to the National army about 10,000 men. It is a noteworthy 
fact that Delaware was the only slave-labor State the soil of which was not 
moistened by the blood of men slain in battle. 

Delaware is pre-eminently a fruit-growing State. It furnishes for the 
markets of New York and Philadelphia a vast number of peaches, apples, 
quinces and small fruits; and it has been estimated that, in connection with 
New Jersey and M;ir}-land, it supplies fully seven-tenths of the entire demand 
for these products. Farms occupy about ten-thirteenths of the entire area 
of the State. 

Delaware has, also, quite extensive manufactories. The total product 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 



303 



of its manufactures in 1880 was valued at $20,514,438. It has over 200 miles 
of railways in operation within its borders. 

The Commonwealth had, in 1880, 26,652 children enrolled in the public 
schools, and 404 schools for white children and fifty-six for colored children. 
Its total expenditure for public schools in that year was $221,731. It has a 
State college and a college for young women. 

The largest city in Delaware is Wilmington, with a population in 1880 of 
42,478. Its capital, Dover, had 281 1. From 1776 to 1787 two of the Gov- 
ernors of Delaware — John D. Minor and Thos. McKean — ^were residents of 
Pennsylvania. The first Governor of the State — Joshua Clayton^was electee! 
in 1789. 






North Carolina is one of the Southern Atlantic States, and 
was an original member of the American Union. Four 
sister States lie on three sides of the Commonwealth — 
Virginia on the north, Tennessee on the west, and South 
Carolina and Georgia on the south. On the eastern border 
is the Atlantic Ocean. It lies between 33° 49' 45" and 
36° 33' north latitude, and 75° 25' and 84° 30' west longitude, embraces an 
area of 52,250 square miles, and, in 1880, ranked fifteen among the States in 
population, which then numbered 1,399,750. Of these 582,508 were colored 
persons, including 1230 Indians. 

Along the whole seaboard of North Carolina is a continuous line of nar- 
row, low sand-islands (some of them mere sand-banks), stretching southward 
between the mainland and the ocean, inclosing a series of sounds or lagoons, 
which are mostly shallow and difficult of navigation. The most considerable 
of these lagoons is Albemarle Sound, immediately south of the great Dismal 
Swamp. It extends inland from the sea about sixty miles, and is from four 
to fifteen miles in width. 

The surface of North Carolina, in the southern and south-eastern por- 
tions, is level and sandy, and often marshy. The great Dismal Swamp in the 
northern part of the State lies partly in Virginia. It extends nearly thirty 
miles from north to south, and averages about ten miles in width. Five navi- 
gable rivers rise out of it. The soil of the swamp is a quagmire. It is 
skirted by a fringe of reeds ten or fifteen feet in height, and it abounds with 
cedar, cypress, juniper, pine and oak trees of enormous size. This immense 
swamp is considerably higher than the surrounding country. 

From forty to sixty miles from the sea-coast the surface of North Caro- 
lina begins to rise into a fine hill-country at the middle of the State, with a 
most salubrious climate. This beautiful region extends to the mountains in 
the western part of the Commonwealth, where the Alleghany ranges cross the 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 



305 



State from north to south, presenting several high peaks. The most lofty of 
these is Clingman's Peak, rising 6,940 feet above the sea-level. The range 
nearest the coast is known as the Blue Ridge. All are covered with verdure 
to their summits. 

The coast of North Carolina was visited by two English navigators — 
Amidas and Barlow — in two vessels in 1584. They were sent by Sir Thomas 
Raleigh. It is conjectured that the coast was seen by Sebastian Cabot in 
1498, and by Verazzani in 1524. The first attempt to plant a settlement in 
that region was made by Raleigh, who, in 1585, sent 108 persons, with Sir 




WILLIAM R. PAVIE, rROMlNLNT IN THE HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA. 

Ralph Lane as their Governor, to plant a colony on what had just been named 
Virginia. (See Virginia.) They landed on Roanoke Island. But Lane and 
his colony were more intent on a quest for gold than for founding a per- 
manent settlement. By their bad conduct they offended the natives, who 
had received them most kindly. The barbarians refused supplies of food for 
the intruders, and they almost starved. Afraid of the dusky enemies they had 
made, the survivors of Lane's party abandoned the country, and returned to 
England in one of Drake's ships, which had touched at the island. 

In 1587 Raleigh sent an agricultural colony to Roanoke Island, with 
John White as their Governor. He was accompanied by his son-in-law and 
his young wife. It was intended to plant the colony on the main land, but 



3o6 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

White went no further than the island. The emigrants cultivated the friend- 
ship of the Indians. White soon returned to England for supplies, leaving 
behind eighty men, seventeen women and two children. His daughter had 
given birth to a child since their arrival, to whom she gave the name of Vir- 
ginia. 

White touched at Ireland on his return voyage to England, where he left 
some potatoes which he had found under cultivation by the natives on 
Roanoke Island. They were the first ever seen in Europe. From this same 
spot Amidas and Barlow had carried some tobacco to England, the first ever 
seen in Europe. 

White sailed for Roanoke Island with two ships with supplies; but, in- 
stead of going directly to America, he pursued two Spanish ships in quest of 
plunder. His own vessels were so battered in a fight that he was compelled 
to return to England. He did not reach America until 1590, when he found 
Roanoke Island a desolation. Not a trace of the colony could be found. It 
is believed that, despairing of White's return, they had gone to the main 
land, and, in time, mingled with the barbarians there; for, long years after- 
wards, families of the Hatteras tribe exhibited unmistakable marks of Euro- 
pean blood. 

No other attempts to plant a colony on the soil of North Carolina were 
successfully made until the middle of the 17th century. So early as 1609 
some people from Jamestown, in Virginia, seated themselves on the Nan- 
semond River, near the Dismal Swamp; and, in 1622, the secretary of the 
Virginia Colony (John Povey) penetrated the country southward beyond the 
Roanoke River, with a view to make a settlement there. 

In 1630 Charles I. granted to Sir Richard Heath, his attorney-general, a 
patent for a domain south of Virginia, six degrees of latitude in width, ex- 
tending from Albermarle Sound to the St, John's River in Florida, and west- 
ward to the Pacific Ocean. No settlement was made there, and the charter 
was forfeited. 

At that time Dissenters, or Nonconformists, were suffering many dis- 
abilities in Virginia, and looked to the wilderness for freedom. In 1653 Roger 
Green and a few Presbyterians left that colony and settled upon the Chowan 
River, near (present) Edenton. Other Nonconformists joined them and the 
colony flourished. Thus was planted the permanent and fruitful germ of the 
Commonwealth of North Carolina. 

Governor Berkeley, of Virginia, wisely or.\inized these settlements into 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 307 

a separate political community in 1663. William Drummond, a Scotch Pres- 
byterian minister, then in Virginia, was appointed their Governor. The set- 
tlement was named "Albemarle County colony," in honor of the Duke of 
Albemarle, who had become proprietor of the territory. 

Some New England adventurers had planted themselves on the borders 
of the Cape Fear River, near the site of (present) Wilmington, in 1661, but 
many of them soon abandoned the country, partly on account of the poverty 
of the soil, and partly because Charles II. had given the whole region to eight 
of his courtiers. The domain was named " Carolina." 

The charter given to these countries extended the domain northward so 
as to include Albemarle County colony, and southward so as to include all 
Florida, excepting its peninsula. 

In 1665 a company of planters from Barbadoes bought lands of the In- 
dians near the site of Wilmington, on the Cape Fear River, where they founded 
a settlement, with Sir John Yeamans as their Governor. It was organized 
into a political community, and named the " Clarendon County colony," in 
compliment to the Earl of Clarendon, the historian, one of the proprietors. 
Yeamans's jurisdiction extended from the Cape Fear to the St. John's River. 
This settlement was permanent, but the poverty of the soil prevented a rapid 
increase in the population. It was in the region of the pine forests and 
sandy levels. Then was founded the Commonwealth of North Carolina. In 
1674 the population of that province was about 4000. 

Settlements had now begun further south in the domain of Carolina. 
The proprietors had gorgeous visions of a grand empire in America, and in 
1669 the Earl of Shaftesbury (one of the proprietors) and John Locke, the 
philosopher, prepared a scheme of government for the colony, having orders 
of nobility — a feudal system wholly at variance with the feelings of the settlers. 
It was never put into operation. 

Excessive taxation and other causes of discontent caused the people of 
Albemarle County to revolt in 1677. They seized the Governor and impris- 
oned him ; and six of his Council called an Assembly, appointed a new Gov- 
ernor and Judges, and for two years conducted public affairs independent of 
foreign control. 

In 1683 the proprietors sent Seth Sothel to North Carolina as Governor. 
He ruled the colony for six years, when, his rapacity and corruption being 
unendurable, the people banished him. In 1695 John Archdale, a Quaker,. 



3o8 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

TDCcame Governor. His justice and integrity restored order and good feeling, 
■when the colony started on a prosperous career. 

In 171 1, after the colony had passed through the excitement of a rebel- 
lion, caused by the bad conduct of a Governor, the province became involved 
in war with the Indians within its borders, and suffered dreadfully. In one 
night (October 2, 171 1) 130 persons were massacred by the barbarians. Troops 
and friendly Indians came to their aid from the " Carteret County colony " 
(afterwards South Carolina), when hostilities ceased for a time. War broke 
out again in 1713, when eight hundred Tuscarora Indians were captured, and 
the remainder of their tribe fled northward and joined their kindred, the Iro- 
quois, in New York. 

In 1729 Carolina became a royal province, and was permanently divided 
into two parts, called respectively " North Carolina " and " South Carolina." 
Settlements in the North State gradually increased. The people, with com- 
petent leaders, took part in the political discussions preceding the war for 
independence; and in 1769 the Assembly of North Carolina denied the right 
of Parliament to tax the colonies without their consent. An insurrectionary 
movement began in the interior of the colony in 1770-71 on account of the 
rapacity and extortion of their rulers. The people formed an association 
known as "the Regulators." A sanguinary battle was fought in May, 1771, 
when nearly forty men were killed. These events caused fierce hatred of 
British rulfe in that province. 

North Carolina sent delegates to the first Continental Congress in 1774, 
and associations were formed in different parts of the province for mutual 
defense. A general meeting of delegates of the people of twenty-six coun- 
ties and seven towns was held at New Berne on April 3, 1775. The General 
Assembly of the Province was in session at the same time. The royal Gov- 
ernor dissolved them on the 8th, and they never met again. The people 
formed a provincial Convention, which assumed governmental authority. 

Finally, a popular defensive association of Mecklenburg County assem- 
bled at Charlotte at the close of May, 1775, and by a series of bold resolves 
virtually declared the independence of the colonies, and provided for an in- 
dependent government in Mecklenburg County. 

Alarmed by the aspect of public affairs, the royal Governor, Martin, ab- 
dicated, and took refuge on board a British war-vessel in the Cape Fear River. 
Then the provincial Convention organized a body of troops. The delegates 
of the province in the Continental Congress, in 1776, were authorized to vote 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 309 

for independence, and the great Declaration was ratified by the people in 
August, 1776, 

A Convention met at Halifax in December, 1776, and framed a State Con- 
stitution, and that instrument remained the fundamental law of the Common- 
wealth until 1835. 

Richard Caswell was chosen the first Governor of the new State. One 
of its most distinguished citizens was William Richardson Davie, who was 
•only twenty years of age when the Declaration of Independence was adopted ; 
but before the close of the war he was at the head of a corps of cavalry doing 
noble service for his State. He was Governor of North Carolina in 1798, 
and was afterwards employed in the diplomatic service of his country in 
France. 

During the old war for independence the State sufTered much from the 
operations of contending armies. One of the most notable battles of the war 
— Guilford Court House — occurred on its soil. It also suffered much from 
contending political factions. 

The Tories or Loyalists in North Carolina were numerous, especially 
among a large Scotch population. The Whigs, however, were largely in the 
majority, and in 1780 they treated the Tories with great severity. Corn- 
wallis, in South Carolina, had sent emissaries among the Tories, who advised 
them to keep quiet until they had gathered their crops, in autumn, when the 
British army would march to their assistance. But, impatient of the severities 
to which they were exposed, they flew to arms at once, but were defeated 
and dispersed. After the battle at Guilford Court House, early in 1781, 
Cornwallis, who had entered the State, as promised, fled toward the seaboard 
and into Virginia. 

The people of North Carolina, in representative Convention assembled, 
in 1788, rejected the National Constitution, but ratified it the next year. The 
people, industrious and frugal, prospered. They suffered very little from the 
effects of the war of 18 12-15, for they had no battle or severe losses within 
their territory. 

Although North Carolina was a slave-labor State, its people, as a rule, 
were not inclined to sympathize with the Secession movements late in i860 
and early in 1861. Great efforts, however, were made by the Secessionists 
within and without its domain to force the State into revolution. Its Gov- 
ernor favored the movement. Its United States Senator (CHngman) made 
€arly efforts to arouse the people of that State to revolt ; but love for the 



3IO THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

Union was so strong among them that they did not readily follow such leaders. 
The South Carolinians taunted them with cowardice; the Virginia Secession- 
ists treated them with coldness ; the Alabamians and the Mississippians coaxed 
them by the lips of Commissioners. 

The Legislature of North Carolina, that met on November 19, i860, pro- 
vided for a Convention, but directed that no ordinance of that Convention 
" dissolving the connection of the State of North Carolina with the Federal 
Government, or connecting it with any other, shall have any force or validity 
until it shall have been submitted to and ratified by a majority of the qualified 
voters of the State," to whom it should be submitted at least a month after 
such submission should be advertised. 

Although there was no pretense of secession for months later, the Gov- 
ernor caused the United States forts within its borders and the United States 
arsenal at Fayetteville, which the disloyal Secretary of War had filled with 
arms for northern arsenals, to be seized. These movements the people con- 
demned. 

The Secessionists finally persuaded the Legislature to authorize a Seces- 
sion Convention. The Governor was vested with authority to raise io,ooO' 
men, and it gave the State Treasurer power to issue bills of credit to the 
amount of $500,000. tt defined treason to be making war upon the State. 

The Secession Convention met on May 20, 1861, and on the same day 
adopted and issued an Ordinance of Secession by a unanimous vote. On the 
same day the Governor issued an order for the enrolment of 30,000 men. 
Within three weeks not less than 20,000 were in arms. The United States 
Mint at Charlotte was seized. 

Some of the most stirring events in the Civil War occurred on the coasts 
of North Carolina, and in the adjacent waters. Roanoke Island and the forts 
on Cape Hatteras were taken by National troops early in the war. Its sounds 
and their shores witnessed many minor conflicts. Fort Fisher, at the mouth 
of Cape Fear River, was captured in February, 1865. Soon afterwards Gen- 
eral Sherman made a victorious march through North Carolina, and General 
Johnson's army was surrendered on its soil. 

On May 29, 1865, W. W. Holden was made provisional Governor of the 
State, and in October a Convention of delegates assembled at Raleigh, adopted 
resolutions declaring the Ordinance of Secession null, abolishing slavery and 
repudiating the State debt created in aid of the great insurrection. A new 
Legislature ratified the amendment to the National Constitution abolishing 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 311 

slavery. But the new Government of the State did not meet with the 
approval of Congress. 

In 1867 a military government for North Carolina was established, and 
measures were taken for a reorganization of the civil government. At the 
next election the votes of sixty thousand emancipated colored people were 
cast. 

In January, 1868, a Convention adopted a new Constitution. It was rati- 
fied by the people in April, was approved by Congress, and in June North 
Carolina was declared to be entitled to representation in that body. On 
March 4, 1869, the people of North Carolina adopted the Fifteenth amend- 
ment to the National Constitution by a large majority. 

The chief industry of North Carolina is agriculture, producing all kinds 
•of cereals in abundance, also tobacco and cotton in large quantities, while its 
pine forests produce a vast amount of tar and turpentine. On this account 
the Commonwealth has received the names of " The Tar State " and " The 
Turpentine State." Its manufacturing industries are not large or numerous. 
Its mineral resources are enormous. Before the acquisition of California, the 
richest gold mines known in the United States were in North Carolina, and a 
mint, for coinage, was established at Charlotte. Silver, lead, zinc and copper 
are found there ; also diamonds. Its chief mineral wealth consists of iron and 
bituminous coal. There are over 1600 miles of railways in the State. 

Provision for popular education in North Carolina is liberal. In 1880 
there were 265,422 children enrolled in its public schools, with an average 
daily attendance of 181,576. It expended for its public schools that year 
$338,700. There are eight colleges in the State, and several higher seminaries 
■of learning. 









(1664.) 

New Jersey is one of the Middle Atlantic States, and 
one of the original thirteen. It lies between the Atlan- 
tic Ocean and the Hudson River, and Delaware Bay 
and River, extending from latitude 38° 55' and 41° 21' 
19' north, and longitude yT,° 53' and 75° 33' v.-est. 
On its western "borders are the States of Pennsylvania 
and Delaware, and on the north and east the State of New York. The terri- 
tory embraces an area of 7,815 square miles, occupied by a population, in 
1880, of 1,092,007, of whom 39,099 were colored, including a few Indians and 
Chinese. It then ranked nineteen in population among the States. 

The southern and middle portions of the State are generally low, level 
and sandy, especially near the coast. The north half of the State is traversed 
by three distinct ranges of lofty hills. Two of them, the Kittatinney or Blue 
Mountains (Shawangunk in New York) and the Highland range belong to the 
Appalachian chain. 

As we have observed (see Delaware), it is diflficult to draw the line of 
demarcation in the early history of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware^ 
they were then so intimately connected. The territory of New Jersey was. 
claimed to be a part of New Netherland. 

So early as 1620, some Dutch traders of New Amsterdam seated them- 
selves at Bergen, and in 1623 Captain Jacobus May, with a company of the 
Walloon emigrants (see New York), built Fort Nassau at the mouth of Tim- 
mer Kill, near Gloucester, on the Delaware, four miles below Philadelphia. 
There four young married couples began a settlement, but it did not succeed. 
In 1634 Sir Edmund Plowden, or Bloyden, obtained a grant from the 
British monarch of a tract of land on the New Jersey side of the Delaware, 
and called it " New Albion." Four years later some Swedes and Finns 
bought lands from the Indians in that vicinity and began some settlements. 
The Swedes planted a colony, called it "New Sweden," aad in. 1655 were 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 



313 



dispossessed by Stuyvesant, the Dutch Governor of New Netherland, with a 
military force. 

After the English took forcible possession of New Netherland, in 1664, 
Governor Nicolls, under the authority of the Duke of York, proceeded to- 
give patents for lands within the present domain of New Jersey. The Duke, 
afterwards granted that portion of his claimed territory to two of his favor- 
ites, Lord Berkeley, brother of the Governor of Virginia, and Sir George 
Carteret. The latter had been Governor of the Island of Jersey during the 
Civil War, and defended it against Parliamentary troops. Settlements under 
grants by Nicolls had already been begun at (present) Newark, Middletown,, 




WILLIAM LIVINGSTON, FIRST GOVERNOR OF NEW JERSEY. 

and Shrewsbury. The name of New Jersey was given to the domain in com- 
pliment to Carteret. 

The new proprietors sent Philip Carteret, a cousin of Sir George, as 
Governor of the domain, who bore with him a Constitution as the supreme 
law for the colony, which grew very rapidly, for its terms were liberal. It 
provided a government composed of a Governor and Council, and a repre- 
sentative assembly chosen by the people. 

Four English families from Long Island had seated themselves under a 
patent from Nicolls at a place which the Governor named Elizabethtown, in 
honor of Elizabeth, wife of Sir George, and there he built a house for himself. 

The first Legislative Assembly of New Jersey convened at Elizabeth- 
town in 1668. It was vested with all Legislative powers, while the Executive 
power was intrusted to the Governor and Council. Its most urgent business. 



314 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

was to endeavor to adjust conflicting claims by those who had received 
patents from Nicolls and from the new proprietors. These disputes, which 
sometimes assumed the proportions of violent quarrels, disturbed the colony 
for some years. 

Other troubles arose. The proprietors published a form of agreement 
called " Concessions," containing liberal offers to emigrants who might settle 
in the territory. Among other provisions was an exemption from the pay- 
ment of quit-rents and other taxes for the space of five years. These con- 
cessions, the salubrity of the climate and the fertility of the soil, lured many 
settlers to the domain. 

The colony was peaceable and prosperous until 1670, when a quit-rent 
of a half-penny for each acre was demanded. The settlers murmured. Those 
who had purchased land from the Indians denied the right of the proprietors 
to exact a quit-rent. The people combined in resisting the payment, and 
finally revolted. They called a popular assembly, deposed Governor Car- 
teret, and put a dissolute, illegitimate son of Sir George in his place. The 
proprietors were preparing to subdue the people, when all of New Nether- 
land fell into the hands of the Dutch. 

When the English again took possession of New York, by virtue of a 
treaty, the Duke obtained a new charter, and New Jersey was placed under 
the rule of Governor Andros, " the tyrant of New England." Carteret 
demurred, and his rights were partially restored. Berkeley was disgusted, and 
sold his rights to an English Quaker, who, becoming financially embarrassed, 
disposed of his interest in the province to William Penn and others in 1675. 
The next year the province was divided into East and West Jersey, Carteret 
receiving the Eastern and the Quakers the Western division. 

There was a large emigration of Quakers from England to West Jersey, 
Avho settled below the Raritan River, under a very liberal government. Andros 
demanded their allegiance, but it was refused. This matter was referred to 
high legal authority in England and the settlers were sustained. 

The first popular assembly in New Jersey met at Salem in November, 
1661, and adopted a code of laws for the government of the people. After the 
death of Carteret, in 1679, East Jersey was offered for sale. It was purchased 
by William Penn and eleven others of his co-religionists in 1682, who ap- 
pointed Robert Barclay, a young Scotch Quaker and one of the proprietors, 
•Governor. Emigrants from Britain and from Long Island flocked into East 
Jersey, but were compelled to endure the petty tyranny of Andros until the 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 315 

Duke, become James 11. , was driven from the throne and Andros was sent to 
England. 

The colony was without a regular civil government for several years. 
Contentions and losses discouraged the proprietors, and in 1702 the domain 
of New Jersey was surrendered to the Crown. The infamous Lord Corn- 
bury, Governor of New York, misruled it for a time, and made the people 
political slaves. The province remained a dependency of New York, with a 
distinct Legislature, until 1738, when it was made an independent colony, 
.and so remained until the old war for independence. Its first Governor was 
Lewis Morris. The last royal Governor of the Colony was William Franklin, 
the only son of Dr. Benjamin Franklin, who, when the Revolution broke out, 
remained loyal to the Crown. He defied public opinion, and in June, 1776, 
was arrested and sent a prisoner to Connecticut, where he was kept under 
strict guard about two years, and was then exchanged. 

The people of New Jersey took an active part in the ante-revolutionary 
disputes with Great Britain, and made a decided stand against the Crown 
after the affair at Lexington, in April, 1775. They had been ably represented 
in the First Continental Congress. On May 2, 1775, the Provincial Commit- 
tee of Correspondence directed its chairman to summon a Provincial Congress 
of deputies to meet at Trenton on the 23d of the same month. Thirteen 
counties were there represented, when Hendrick Fisher was chosen president 
of the Congress. 

Governor Franklin summoned a session of the Provincial Assembly on 
the 15th of May, but they declined to appear or take any decisive action with- 
out the consent of the Continental Congress, then in session. The Provincial 
Congress adopted measures for organizing the militia and the issuing of bills 
of credit to the amount of $50,000. In June, 1776, Governor Franklin again 
called a meeting of the old Provincial Assembly, and for this offense he was 
arrested and sent a prisoner to Connecticut, as we have observed. 

On the 2d of July, 1776, the Provincial Congress adopted a State Consti- 
tution, which was ratified on the i8th, and New Jersey took a position as an 
independent State of the Union. Under that Constitution the State was 
governed until 1844, when the present Constitution was adopted. The early 
instrument allowed universal suffraf^e, without distinction of sex or color. 
The present Constitution restricts the suffrage to white men over twenty-one 
years of age. 

Some of the most stirring events of the old war for independence oc- 



3i6 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

curred on New Jersey soil. The exciting chase of Washington across the 
State from the Hudson to the Delaware by Earl Cornwallis took place at 
near the close of 1776, and soon afterwards the battles of Trenton and 
Princeton were fought. Then the State was wrested from the invading 
British. Later, the sanguinary battle of Monmouth Court House occurred 
in the more southern region of the State, and events which made Morristown 
famous occurred in the beautiful hill-country of New Jersey. The State 
suffered much during the war from the incursions of British troops, German 
mercenaries and resident Tories. 

The first Legislature of New Jersey, after its State organization, met at 
Princeton in August, 1776, and chose William Livingston Governor. The 
people of that State were among the earliest to ratify the National Constitu- 
tion, which event occurred, by unanimous vote, on December 18, 1787. The 
State capital was established at Trenton in 1790. 

The State of New Jersey was not disturbed by the intercolonial wars, 
nor by the second war for independence, though it bore its share of the bur- 
dens imposed ; but, like all the other States of the Union, it was deeply con- 
cerned in the great Civil War, in 1861-65. The members of the Legislature, 
which assembled on January 8, 1861, were divided in sentiment, chiefly on 
political partisan grounds. The Governor, in his message, favored the com- 
promise measures then before Congress; or, in the event of their not being 
adopted, he recommended a delegate Convention of all the States to agree 
upon some plan of pacification. The Democratic party had a majority of the 
New Jersey Legislature. A majority of the Committee on National Affairs 
reported resolutions endorsing the so-called " Crittenden compromise," which 
were adopted by the Democratic majority of the Legislature on the 31st as 
" the sentiment of the people of the State." The Republican minority denied 
this assertion, and by resolutions they declared the willingness of the people 
of the State to aid the Government in the execution of all the laws of Con- 
gress. They asserted the nationality of the General Government, as against 
State supremacy; clared it to be the duty of the National Government to 
maintain its authority everywhere within the limits of the Republic, and 
pledged the faith and power of New Jersey in aid of that Government to any 
extent required. The people redeemed that pledge, and furnished the National 
army with 79,511 soldiers. 

In 1870 the State Legislature refused to ratify the Fifteenth amendment 
to the National Constitution, which gave the elective franchise to the colored 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 



3V 



population, claiming for each State the right to regulate its own suffrage 
laws. 

The industry of the people of New Jersey is largely devoted to agricul- 
ture, yet its manufactures are very extensive. Cotton fabrics are quite ex- 
tensively manufactured in New Jersey. In 1880 there were engaged in it 
3,334 looms, running 232,305 spindles. The aggregate product of its iron and 
steel manufactures was valued at $10,341,896. 

There are over 1750 miles of railroad in operation within the State of 
New Jersey. The assessed value of its property was $572,518,361, in 1880,. 
The State exercises a zealous, fostering care for the instruction of its chil- 
dren. It expended for public schools in 1880 $2,039,930. There were 205,240 
children enrolled in the public schools, with an average attendance of 11,860. 
There are in the State four universities and colleges, the College of New Jer- 
sey, at Princeton, being one of the oldest institutions of learning in America. 
It has numerous normal schools, seminaries for young women, and academies. 

The largest cities in New Jersey, in 1880, were Jersey City and Newark, 
the former having 153,503 inhabitants, and the latter 152,988. Its capital 
(Trenton) had 34,386. 



tp 00 





(1670.) 




South Carolina is one of the Southern Atlantic States, 
and an original member of the Republic. It lies between 
latitude 35° 13' and 32° 4' north, and longitude 78° 28' 
and 83° 18" west, embracing an area of 30,570 square 
miles. In 1880 it had a population of 995,577, of whom 
considerably more than one-half were colored, they (in- 
cluding 131 Indians) numbering 604,472. 

The south-eastern boundary of the State is washed by the Atlantic 
Ocean ; on the north and north-east is the State of North Carolina, and on 
the south-west the State of Georgia, from which it is separated by the Savan- 
nah River. 

From eighty to one hundred miles from the sea-coast the country is low, 
:alluvial, and in some sections it presents swamps and marshes, through which 
'•sluggish streams flow into land-locked bays and sounds along the coast. In 
the middle of the State is a belt of low sand-hills which are somewhat fertile. 
Beyond this region " the Ridge " rises in terraces, its greatest height being 
the Blue Ridge, in the north-western part of the State, where its highest 
point, Table Mountain, reaches an altitude of 4,000 feet above the sea. The 
State is thoroughly watered, its largest stream being the Santee River, which, 
with its tributaries, drains the central part of the Commonwealth. The 
mumerous islands along the coast are very fertile. 

The first attempt to plant a settlement in South Carolina was made by 
John Ribault and a party of Huguenots or French Protestants. They came 
•in two ships, discovered and named the St. John's River in Florida, and, 
•sailing northward, entered a broad inlet and harbor, to which they gave the 
name of Port Royal. They landed on a beautiful island, where they built a 
fort, and named it Carolina, in honor of Charles IX., King of France. That 
■sivas in 1562. D'Allyon, a Spanish adventurer, had made a brief tarry on the 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 319. 

shores of South Carolina as early as 1520. Ribault and his companions sooa 
abandoned it 

As we have remarked in the sketch of North Carolina, this region was 
granted to eight of the favorites of Charles 11., who, in 1670, sent three ships,, 
with emigrants, under the direction of Sir William Sayle and Joseph West^ 
to plant a colony below Cape Fear. They entered Port Royal Sound, and 
landed on Beaufort Island, at the very spot where the Huguenots had so- 
journed for a while and built a fort. 

These English immigrants soon abandoned Beaufort, sailed northward, 
entered what is now Charleston Harbor, went up a river (now the Ashley), 
and seated themselves on its right banks. West exercised the functions of 




WILLIAM MOULTRIE, FIRST GOVERNOR OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 

Governor until the arrival of Sir John Yeamans, the Governor of both the 
Carolinas, late in 1671, with fifty families and a large number of African slaves 
from Barbadoes. Civil government was established the next year under the 
title of " The Carteret County colony," so named in honor of Sir George 
Carteret, one of the grantees (see New Jersey). So was planted the germ of 
the State of South Carolina. 

Ten years later this colony removed to Oyster Point, at the junction of 
(present) Ashley and Cooper rivers, where they founded a city, and named 
it Charlestown or Charleston. It Avas laid out by John Culpepper, who had 
been surveyor-general of North Carolina. 

Not long after this, some Dutch families, dissatisfied with English rule 



320 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

at New York, went to South Carolina and seated themselves along the San- 
tee and Edisto rivers. The proprietors of the Carolinas tried to induce the 
settlers to accept as a form of government the plan drawn up by Locke and 
Shaftesbury, called Fundamental Constitutions, but they refused compliance. 

West remained nominal Governor for several years. The colony increased. 
It was soon made up of different nationalities and characteristics. There 
were cavaliers and their sons, of the English aristocracy, who had come as 
adventurers; Irish and Scotch Presbyterians; French Huguenots; German 
and Swiss Protestants, Moravians and Bohemians. The cavaliers were dis- 
posed to " lord it " over the others, and political and religious quarrels dis- 
tracted the colony for a long time. The people were often in opposition to 
the proprietary rulers, and in 1690 they broke out into open rebellion, when 
the popular Assembly impeached and banished Governor John Colleton. 

At this juncture Seth Sothel, banished from North Carolina, arrived, when 
the people chose him for their Governor. For fully two years he plundered 
and oppressed them, when he, too, was deposed and banished. When Philip 
Ludlow came to govern for the proprietors, though a good man, the aroused 
•colonists resolved not to tolerate him. He tried to enforce the Fundamental 
Constitutions, but soon gladly withdrew from the turbulent community. 

A conciliatory spirit now gained influence over the colony. In 1695 
John Archdale, an English Quaker, came to govern the province. His eldest 
sister had married Sir Ferdinando Gorges (see Nezv Hampshire and Maine'), 
and he was one of the Carolina proprietors. On his arrival in South Caro- 
lina he formed a commission of sensible and moderate men, to whom he ex- 
pressed the desire and determination to allay all ill feeling in the colony. 
He was then seventy years of age His mild, republican rule made the 
people happy. 

For the first time South Carolina issued bills of credit on account of a 
burden of debt laid upon it by its ambitious Governor, Moore, who led an 
unsuccessful expedition against the Spaniards at St. Augustine, Florida, in 
1702 The debt incurred was $26,000. The Governor conducted a more 
successful expedition against the Appalachian Indians the next year. They 
were in league with the Spaniards. He made their whole territory in Georgia 
tributary to South Carolina. 

At about this time the proprietors attempted to establish the Anglican 
Church ritual as the State method of worship in South Carolina, and the 
Assembly excluded all dissenters from public ofifices. The British ministry 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 321 

compelled the Assembly to repeal the law, but the Church party remained 
dominant. 

A French and Spanish fleet attacked Charleston in 1706, but were re- 
pulsed. A few years Iater(i7i5)a general Indian Confederacy was formed 
for the extermination of the white people in South Carolina. They came 
upon the Carolinas from Georgia, from the west, and from North Carolina. 
After several encounters the South Carolinians expelled the dusky invaders 
from their borders. These conflicts involved the colony in more debt. The 
proprietors seemed indifferent, when the suffering people arose in their mio-ht 
(1719), and deposing the proprietary Governor, put another magistrate in his 
place. They organized a government independent of the proprietors. The 
difficulty was solved by the purchase of the two Carolinas by the King of 
England for about $80,000. In 1729 the two territories were separated, and 
became distinct royal provinces. 

From that time, until the French and Indian War, the colony was pros- 
perous, though troubled occasionally by hostile Indians and Spaniards. The 
colony was loyal. But when the oppressive laws devised by the British 
ministry aroused all the English-American colonies to resistance. South Caro- 
lina participated in the movement. The people early took measures to resist 
the invasion of their rights. A provincial Congress was formed in 1774, and 
delegates were sent to the Continental Congress at Philadelphia, The royal 
Governor (Lord Campbell) abdicated the government, and took refuge from 
the wrath of the Whigs on board a British war vessel in Charleston Harbor, 
in September, 1775, when royal power ceased and the government was ad- 
ministered by a Provincial Council. 

In March, 1776, a State Constitution was adopted, when the Council 
resolved itself into an Assembly, and chose from its own body a Legislative 
Council of thirteen members. John Rutledge was chosen President and 
Henry Laurens Vice-President. This government was formed to last only 
until the end of the war. William Moultrie was elected first Governor in 1785. 

South Carolina suffered fearfully during the war for independence, from 
invasions of British armies and the violence of factions — the bitterness of 
Whigs and Tories. Several severe battles and many sanguinary encounters 
between partisans occurred. Charleston was seized by the British in 1780, 
and held by them until the end of the war. 

On the 28th of May, 1788, the people, in representative Convention, 
ratified the National Constitution. The first permanent State Constitution 



322 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

was aaopted by the Legislature, without submission to the people, on June 
3, 1790. Charles Pinckney had been chosen Governor at the close of 1789. 
Among the most distinguished of the early patriots and statesmen of South 
Carolina, was Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, who bore a very active part in 
civil and military affairs during the Revolution. He was sent as minister to the 
revolutionary government of France in 1796. When the Directory demanded 
tribute, Pinckney said: " MiUions for defense but not one cent for tribute." 

The chief agricultural product, cotton, had made a very profitable indus- 
try after the introduction of Whitney's cotton-gin, and the slave-labor system 
became vitally important. The number of slaves rapidly increased, and in 
1820 they exceeded in number the white people. The high tariffs imposed 
were unfavorable to the cotton-growing States, and great political excitement 
was manifested in some of them, particularly in South Carolina, from 1828 to 
1833. The " Nullification " movement in that State was defiance of National 
authority. 

Immediately after the Presidential election in 1832, a South Carolina 
State Convention met and adopted, by unanimous vote, an ordinance which 
pronounced the tariff " null and void, and no law, nor binding on the State^ 
its officers and citizens " ; and prohibited the payment of duties on imports 
imposed by that law within the State after February i, 1833. It declared 
that no appeal in the matter should be made to the Supreme Court of the 
United States against the validity of an Act to that effect, and that, should 
the National Government attempt to enforce the law thus nullified, or inter- 
fere with the foreign commerce of the State, the people of South Carolina 
would " hold themselves absolved from all further obligations to maintain, 
and preserve their political connection with the people of the other States." 

This was an assertion of State sovereignty or State supremacy, pure and 
simple. The defiance of the National authority brought forth a strong proc- 
lamation from President Jackson, and preparations were made to sustain that 
authority, by force of arms, if necessary. Compromise tariff laws were en- 
acted by Congress, and civil war at that time was averted. State pride fos- 
tered the political idea of State supremacy. It was the basis of the nullifi- 
cation movement, and it made the political leaders of South Carolina eager 
to become pioneers in the secession movements which culminated in civil war. 

A more active and powerful nullification and secession movement 
occurred in South Carolina nearly thirty years after that of 1832. The atti- 
tude of the Northern States toward the slave system of the South had alarmed 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 323 

and disturbed the people of the latter section; and when the Republican 
party, formed in 1854, nominated Abraham Lincoln, a pronounced Anti- 
Slavery man, for President of the United States, threats of secession from 
the Union were made by the politicians in the slave-labor States. When 
Lincoln was elected, in the fall of i860, measures for that purpose were 
adopted. In this movement South Carolina took the lead. A State Con- 
vention assembled first at Columbia, the State capital, and then at Charleston, 
and adopted an ordinance of secession on December 20, i860. The Conven- 
tion adopted a declaration of independence, and the Governor of the State 
declared its sovereignty. The newspapers of Charleston gave items of intelli- 
gence from the other States of the Union under the heading of " Foreign News." 

A few days after the Ordinance of Secession was passed. Civil War was 
begun in Charleston Harbor, by insurgents in batteries on the shores, firing 
on a national vessel that entered it, and by the seizure of national property 
within its borders. In April, 1861, citizens of South Carolina attacked Fort 
Sumter, in Charleston Harbor, whereupon the President of the United States 
called for 75,000 men to put down the rising rebellion. Meanwhile the poli- 
ticians in other slave-labor States had passed ordinances of Secession, and 
were in an attitude of revolt 

Assuming an attitude of sovereignty. South Carolina sent commissioners 
to the National Government to treat upon public matters. They were not 
received. During the Civil War that was then begun, the people of South 
Carolina suffered dreadfully. Slavery was abolished throughout the Union. 
At the close of the war the President of the United States appointed (June 
30, 1865) a provisional Governor for South Carolina, and in September a State 
Convention repealed the Ordinance of Secession and declared slavery abol- 
ished. State of^cers were chosen in October. This government was super- 
seded by military government in March, 1867. 

On January 14, 1868, at a Convention composed of thirty-four white 
people and sixty-three colored people, a State Constitution for South Carolina 
was adopted. It was ratified at an election in April, 1869, by a large major- 
ity, when members of the Legislature (72 white and 85 colored) and represen- 
tatives in Congress were chosen. On the ratification of the Fourteenth 
amendment to the National Constitution, the reorganization of the Common- 
wealth was practically effected. The military power had been withdrawn on 
July 13, 1868, and the Fifteenth amendment to the Constitution was ratified 
in March, 1869. 



324 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 

The signing of the South Carolina Secession ordinance was performed 
with considerable dramatic effect. It had been engrossed on parchment, 
twenty-five by thirty-three inches in size, with the great seal of South Carolina 
attached. The Governor and his Council, and both branches of the Legisla- 
ture, were assembled in a large public hall, which was densely crowded with 
men and women of Charleston. Back of the President's chair was suspended 
a banner composed of cotton cloth, with devices rudely painted in water-color 
by a Charleston artist. The base of the design was a mass of broken and 
disordered blocks of stone, bearing the names of the Free-labor States of the 
Union, showing their ruin. Rising from them were two columns, composed 
of symmetrical blocks, bearing the names of the Slave-labor States, represent- 
ing the new order of things. Over these was a sort of arch, of which South 
Carolina was the key-stone. In the space formed by the two columns and 
the arch was the device on the seal and flag of South Carolina — a palmetto 
tree with a rattlesnake coiled around its trunk, and the legend on a fluttering 
ribbon " Southern Republic." On the keystone of the arch was a picture of 
John C. Calhoun, leaning against a palmetto tree. Beneath all were the 
words — " Built from the Ruins." 

After the signature of every member of the Convention was affixed to 
the Ordinance, a venerable clergyman, a native of New York State, advanced 
to the front of the platform and invoked the blessings of Almighty God 
upon the act just performed. Then the President of the Convention stepped 
forward, read and exhibited the instrument to the people, and said : 

"The Ordinance of Secession has been signed, and I proclaim the State 
of South Carolina an independent Commonwealth." 

A shout of exultation went up from the multitude. So closed the first 
great act of the terrible drama of Civil War in the United States. 

The climate of South Carolina is like that of the south of France and the 
north of Spain. Its largest agricultural product is cotton; its manufactured 
products are limited in amount, and these are chiefly textile fabrics. In 
1880 there were a little over 1400 miles of railways within the State, which 
had cost $36,741,000. 

The number of children of school age in South Carolina in 1880 was little 
more than 228,000, of whom 134,000 were enrolled in the public schools. 
The aggregate expenditure for these schools in 1880 was $367,259. There 
are eight universities or colleges in the State. In 1880, of 667,456 persons of 
ten years of age and upwards, 321,780 were unable to read or write. 




(1682.) 

Pennsylvania, one of the original States of the Republic, 
and one of the middle States of the Atlantic slope, lies 
between latitude 39° 43' and 42° 15' north, and longitude 
74° 43' 36" and 80° 31' 36" west. It embraces an area of 
45,215 square miles. In the census of 1880 this State 
ranked second in population, the number of its people then being 4,282,891, 
of whom 85,875 were colored, including 148 Chinese and 184 Indians, 

Pennsylvania presents a greater variety of surface than any other State 
in the Union. Its mountains spread over a fourth part of the State, in almost 
parallel ridges. The Appalachian chain crosses the State in a belt varying 
in width from seventy-five to one hundred and sixty miles, trending from 
north-east to south-west. Between these ridges are beautiful and very fer- 
tile valleys, varying in width from two or three to thirty miles. The moun- 
tains are high and rugged in the northern part of the State, but seldom rise 
over 2000 feet above the sea level. The principal river of the State is the 
Susquehanna, with its sources in New York and Western Pennsylvania. The 
chief head waters of the Ohio River are in Pennsylvania. The Delaware River 
washes its eastern border, and separates it from the States of New Jersey and 
New York. On the north is Lake Erie, a short distance, and the State of 
New York; on the west is Ohio, and on the south Virginia and West Vir- 
ginia. 

The Dutch, as we have observed, claimed jurisdiction over the waters of 
Delaware Bay and River. This claim was first assailed by a colony of Swedes 
and Finns. (See Nexv Jersey) They settled on the western side of these 
waters, yet they were regarded by the proprietors of New Netherland as 
intruders. The Dutch, under Governor Stuyvesant, subdued and absorbed 
them. 

A large territory west of the Delaware river was granted (168 1) by 
Charles II. to William Penn, son of Admiral Penn, a favorite of the King. 



326 THE GREAT REPUBIJC OF THE WEST: 

The monarch owed the Admiral's estate about $80,000, and the charter for 
the territory was given in payment of that debt. The King directed the 
region to be called Penn-sylvania, or " Penn's wooded country," in the patent. 
The modest Quaker objected to this personal distinction, but to no purpose- 
William Penn was a zealous member of a sect of Puritans called 
" Friends," and Quakers, in derision, who were suffering persecution in Eng- 
land at that time. He sent a colony of " Friends " to his domain, under the 
general superintendence of William Markham, with instructions to deal kindly 
and honestly with every one. The Swedes, who had seated themselves in 
his territory, were treated with great consideration and kindness. He also- 
proposed a scheme of liberal government for his colony. 




THOMAS MIFFLIN, FIRST GOVERN >R OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

Penn had secured from the Duke of York a proprietary title to the ter- 
ritory of the (present) State of Delaware (which see) in August, 1682, and in 
September he sailed for America, with a few emigrants, in the ship Welcome. 
At the end of six weeks he landed (October 28th, O.S.) near the site of (pres- 
ent) New Castle, Delaware, where he was warmly welcomed by about 1000 
settlers. After conferring with some of the Indian chiefs and sachems, he 
went up the Delaware River many miles, in an open boat, to the (present) 
Kensington District of Philadelphia, where he landed. 

On a cold day in November, and under the branches of a wide-spreading 
elm tree, a number of Indian sachems were assembled, with chiefs and women. 
The later foliage of the elm was just falling. A moderate council-fire was 
lighted, and then William Penn concluded a treaty with the barbarians — the 
rightful owners of the soil — for the purchase of the domain which the mon- 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 327 

arch of England had given to him without a shadow of right. This treaty- 
confirmed former treaties made by his cousin, William Markham. 

" We meet," said Penn to the Indians, " on the broad pathway of good 
faith and good will ; no advantage shall be taken on either side, but all shall 
be openness and love. I will not call you children, for parents sometimes 
chide their children too severely; nor brothers only, for brothers sometimes 
differ. The friendship between me and you I will not compare to a chain, 
for that the rains might rust or a falling tree might break. We are the same 
as if one man's body was to be divided into two parts — we are all one flesh 
and blood." 

Then Penn gave presents to the chiefs, and they, in turn, presented him 
with a belt of wampum — an official pledge of their fidelity. With implicit 
faith in his words, the representatives of the barbarians said : 

" We will live in love with William Penn and his children as long as the 
sun and moon shall endure." 

This promise was kept. Not a drop of blood of a Quaker was ever shed 
by an Indian. It was a sacred covenant of peace and friendship between two 
races. Penn was then thirty-eight years of age, and most of his companions 
at the treaty — the deputy-governor and others — were younger than he. 

Penn bought land of the Swedes between the Delaware and Schuykill 
rivers, and there, immediately after the treaty, he founded the City of Phila- 
delphia — " City of Brotherly Love." He caused streets to be laid out, and 
their boundaries to be marked on the trunks of trees, several of which still 
bear the names Chestnut, Walnut, Locust, Spruce, etc. 

Penn divided his domain into six counties, and summoned representatives 
from each to meet him at Philadelphia in March, 1683. They were there at 
the appointed time — ^Dutch, Swedes and English. He gave them a " Charter 
of Liberties." Population was rapidly growing by immigration ; and when, 
in August that year, Penn left for England, there were twenty settled town- 
ships and 7,000 inhabitants in Pennsylvania. He left Thomas Lloyd, a 
Quaker preacher, Governor of the province, with five men as a Council to 
assist him in the administration of government. 

Finally Penn became involved in troubles after the accession of William 
and Mary to the throne of England, in 1689. Because of his personal regard 
for King James II., Penn was accused of disaffection to the new Government, 
and suffered imprisonment and deprivation of his colonial rights for a time. 
Meanwhile discontents had sprung up in Pennsylvania, and the three lower 



328 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

counties, now forming the State of Delaware, offended at some action of the 
Council, seceded (April, 1691), and, with the reluctant consent of Penn, set 
up a separate Government, with William Markham as chief magistrate. 

Penn'scoloflial Government was taken from him in 1692, and the province 
was placed under the authority of Governor Fletcher, of New York, when the 
three revolted counties were reunited with Pennsylvania. All suspicion of his 
loyalty being removed, Penn's chartered rights were restored to him in 1693; 
but when, in 1699, he again came to America, he was pained to find discon- 
tents rife again. The people were clamorous for greater political privileges. 

Late in 1701 Penn gave to his colonists a new charter, far more liberal 
in its concessions than the former. It was cheerfully accepted by a majority 
of the people ; but those of the three lower counties, evidently aiming at in- 
dependence, and whose delegates had withdrawn from the provincial Assem- 
bly, declined to accept it. Penn acquiesced in their decision and allowed 
them a distinct Assembly. This first independent Assembly convened at 
New Castle in 1703. (See Delazvare.) 

The boundaries between Pennsylvania and Maryland and Virginia, on 
account of the claims of Lord Baltimore and others, continued to be a topic 
for disputes for many years. The line was finally fixed, in 1767, by Charles 
Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, English mathematicians, and was ever afterwards 
known as " Mason and Dixon's Line." In the debates on slaveiy before the 
admission of Missouri as a State, John Randolph used the words " Mason and 
Dixon's Line " as figurative of the division of the two systems of labor. 

Members of the Society of Friends had been 'the chief emigrants to 
Pennsylvania, until between 1717 and 1725, when there was a heavy infUux of 
Germans and Scotch-Irish families. Penn died in 171 8, and his heirs succeeded 
him as proprietors of the province. 

During the French and Indian war, and for ten years preceding it, the 
colony was much disturbed by apprehensions of the hostility of the Indians 
against the white people of the province, which the French stimulated. The 
people vainly endeavored to retain the friendship of the barbarians. The 
Shawnees were the first to break faith with the colony, the French having 
secured them as allies. In 1755 and 1756, Western Pennsylvania was the 
scene of conflicts. In the former year occurred Braddock's disastrous expe- 
dition, and other stirring events in which Washington participated. So, also, 
for two or three years longer, when, in 1758, a treaty with the Indians secured 
peace until 1763, when Pontiac's war spread alarm throughout the colony. 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 329 

In 1764 discontents prevailed with the proprietary Government of Penn- 
sylvania, at the head of which was John Penn, a grandson of William Penn. 
Two strongly opposing parties were formed. The Anti-Proprietary party 
secured a majority in the Assembly. That body sent Benjamin Franklin to 
England as their agent, authorized to ask for an abrogation of the proprietary 
authority and the establishment of a royal Government. The mutterino-s of 
the gathering tempest of revolution in the colonies were then growing louder, 
and nothing more was done in the matter. 

The people of Pennsylvania took an active part in movements in favor of 
American independence. The merchants of Philadelphia signed non-import- 
ation agreements, and in 1774 they prevented the landing of tea there. The 
same year a Convention of the people of Philadelphia took the reins of gov- 
ernment ; and, though the provincial Assembly continued to meet, no quorum 
could be obtained. Finally, with an impotent protest, the old Colonial Leg 
islature expired in September. 

Pennsylvania was the theatre of some of the most important events 
which distinguished the old war for independence. In September, 1774, the 
First Continental Congress assembled at Philadelphia, and a large proportion 
of the succeeding sessions of that Congress were held three. In that city the 
resolution and Declaration of Independence was adopted in July, 1776; and 
there, in 1787, the Constitution of the United States was framed by a Con- 
vention over which Washington presided. 

Pennsylvania was well represented in the first Continental Congress. 
On January 23, 1775, a provincial Government was formed at Philadelphia. 
After the skirmish at Lexington, a committee of safety was appointed ; and 
at a large public meeting on April 24, 1775, measures were taken for forming 
a volunteer military association, the spirit of which permeated the whole 
province. Many of the young Quakers took part in the organization, in spite 
of the remonstrances of their elders. They afterwards formed the society 
called the " Free Quakers." Thomas Mififlin, afterwards a Major-General, 
was a leading spirit among them; John Dickinson accepted the command 
of a regiment ; so, also, did Thomas McKean and James Wilson, who were 
afterwards signers of the Declaration of Independence. 

On July 15, 1776, a Convention met at Philadelphia and prepared a State 
Constitution. It was published on the 28th of September. A large and 
influential party in the State regarded it as too democratic. In some of the 
counties its opponents plotted against it, and there was delay in choosing 



330 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

councillors in whom executive authority was vested. As a result of these 
machinations, when the Assembly, elected under the Constitution, met on the 
28th of November, 1776, they were compelled to adjourn without organizing 
a Legislature. Committees were afterwards chosen, and the State Govern- 
ment was organized on March 4, 1777, with Thomas Wharton, jr., as Presi- 
dent. 

Very important military events occurred in Pennsylvania during the war 
for independence. The notable encampment at Valley Forge; the battles at 
the Brandywine Creek and at Germantown, and the desolation of the Valley 
of Wyoming by Tories and Indians, were events within its borders. During 
the winter of 1777-78 Philadelphia was occupied by the British army, and 
caused the flight of the Continental Congress from it. Pennsylvania fur- 
nished more than its full quota of troops during the war. Slavery was abolished 
within its borders in 1780. 

The National Constitution, framed by a Convention at Philadelphia in the 
summer of 1787, was ratified by the people of Pennsylvania on December 
12, 1787. It was the second State that performed that important act. Its 
Constitution was revised in 1790, and again in 1837-38. Its capital was re- 
moved to Lancaster in 1799, and in 181 2 to Harrisburg. 

A speck of civil war in Pennsylvania, before that of the Revolution, has 
been alluded to in the sketch of Connecticut. It is known in history as the 
" Pennymite war." 

The people of Pennsylvania were greatly disturbed by an event known in 
history as the "Whiskey Insurrection," in 1794, The four counties of the 
State west of the Alleghany Mountains, had been largely settled by hardy 
Scotch-Irish, men of energy and decision, and restive under the restraints of 
law. Being far from markets, they converted their rye crops into whiskey, 
and in that smaller bulk conveyed it to market, 

A new excise act, passed in the spring of 1794, was specially obnoxious 
to these people, and when officers were sent to enforce the act among them, 
they were resisted by the people in arms. The insurrection became general 
throughout all that region. It was stimulated by leading men in the commu- 
nity. Many outrages were committed in the vicinity of Pittsburgh. Build- 
ings were burned, mails were robbed, and government officers were insulted and 
abused. The local militia formed a part of the armed mob, at one time 
numbering between six and seven thousand men. The insurgent spirit spread 
into the neighboring counties of Virginia, and presented alarming aspects to 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 331 

President Washington, who observed that the leaders in the insurrection were 
connected with the secret Democratic societies, under the influence of the 
French Revolution. 

The President took prompt measures to suppress the insurrection. He 
issued a proclamation urging the insurgents to desist, and calling upon the 
Governors of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia for a body of 
troops aggregating 13,000 in number, afterwards raised to 16,000. The troops 
were placed under the command of General Lee, of Virginia. 

Before these troops were put in motion, commissioners were sent over 
the mountains, authorized to arrange for the submission of the insurgents. 
They found the leaders of the malcontents in convention at Parkinson's Ferry. 
A tall pole near their meeting place bore the words " Liberty and no Excise ! 
No asylums for cowards and traitors !" They appointed a committee of sixty, 
who met the commissioners at Pittsburgh, where terms of submission were 
arranged, to be ratified, however, by a vote of the people. The alacrity with 
which the President's call for troops was responded to, settled the matter. 
The insurgents had a wholesome fear of the soldiers, and in October the 
" Whiskey Insurrection " was ended. 

Pennsylvania bore its share of the burdens of the second war for inde- 
pendence, but no hostile forces met on its soil. The capture of Washington 
City, the attack on Baltimore, in 1814, and the presence of a blockading 
fleet on the coast, alarmed the citizens of Philadelphia. They cast up some 
fortifications, in which task, as at New York at about the same time, citizens 
of every degree gave their personal aid. The enemy did not come. 

After the war of 18 12- 15 the State engaged in vast enterprises of internal 
improvements which crippled its financial powers for several years. When, 
in the winter of 1860-61, the Republic was in danger from internal foes, it was 
mighty in strength. It then possessed about three million inhabitants. 
Though profoundly moved by the rising tempest of Secession, the people, 
glowing with patriotic ardor, were, nevertheless, conservative at first. A 
week before the first Ordinance of Secession was passed there was an immense 
assemblage of citizens in Independence Square, Philadelphia, called by the 
Mayor, who said disunion was inevitable unless the people should, " in a 
special manner, avow their unfailing fidelity to the Union and their abiding 
faith in the Constitution and Laws." The proceedings were opened by a 
prayer by the Episcopal bishop of the diocese of Pennsylvania (Alonzo 
Potter, D.D.), which was followed by highly conservative speeches — rather 



332 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

more conservative than the general sentiments of the people desired. The 
resolutions then adopted were condemnatory of the conduct of the people of 
the North on the subject of slavery, and, in tone, really justified the disloyal 
movements in the slave-labor States. 

These obsequious resolutions aroused the whole State to energetic action 
in support of the Republic. The address of Governor Curtin to the Legisla- 
ture, on January 15, 1861, was a foreshadowing of the loyalty and energy- 
which he and the people displayed throughout the war. The Legislature 
approved the course of Major Anderson at Fort Sumter, and commended 
Governor Hicks of Maryland. It pledged " the faith and honor of Pennsyl- 
vania " in support of the National Government, and its efforts to sustain its 
authority. By its loyal Governor and Legislature, Pennsylvania was placed 
squarely as a staunch supporter of the National Government, and it fully 
redeemed all its pledges. 

Pennsylvania has the honor of having sent the first troops to the National 
capital for its defense, in April, 1861. They comprised five companies 
from the interior of the State. They went without arms (for expected new- 
muskets were not ready) under an escort of forty regular soldiers. They 
found Maryland a hostile territory to pass through. The people of Washing- 
ton hailed them as deliverers, for they were alarmed by rumors that men from 
Maryland and Virginia were about to seize the capital. The Pennsylvanians 
undoubtedly saved the City of Washington from capture at that time. 

During the war Pennsylvania was invaded by Confederate armies, and 
on its soil, at Gettysburg, one of the two decisive battles of the war was 
fought. At the beginning of the conflict the State raised a large body of 
reserve troops, and it furnished to the National army 357,284 soldiers. 

Pennsylvania is pre-eminently a manufacturing State, especially in iron 
and steel. The value of the products of these industries for 1880 was 
$145,576,268, being nearly five times that of any other State. It has a 
monopoly of anthracite coal, besides vast fields of bituminous coal. About 
20,000,000 tons of anthracite are annually sent to market; and it furnished, 
in 1880, about 6,000,000 tons of bituminous coal. It also yields a vast amount 
of petroleum. In 1882 Pennsylvania had 6700 miles of railway within its 
borders, which cost $485,424,686. It is also a large importing and exporting 
State. 

Pennsylvania has ample provisions for the instruction of its children. In 
1880 the number enrolled in its public schools was 950,300, with an average 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 333 

daily attendance of 622,351. Its aggregate expenditure for public schools 
that year was $7,306,692. There are twenty-seven colleges and universities, 
in the State, with many normal schools, academies and seminaries for girls.. 
It was early named " The Keystone State," because of its central position in 
the group of the thirteen original States — like the keystone of an arch. 

There are several large cities in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. 
The largest two are Philadelphia and Pittsburg. The former had, in 1880, 
847,170 inhabitants, and the latter 156,389. Harrisburg, its capital, had 30,762- 






(1724.) 

Vermont is one of the New England States, but not one 
of the original thirteen that formed the American Union. 
It lies between latitude 42° 44' and 45° north, and 70° 
30' and 73° 26' west longitude. On the north it joins 
the Province of Quebec, of the Dominion of Canada; on 
the east lies New Hampshire; on the south, Massachu- 
setts, and on the west, New York. The State embraces an area of 9,565 
square miles, and had a population in 1880 of 332,286, of whom 1,063 were 
colored. 

The face of Vermont is greatly diversified by hills and valleys. It is 
divided into two unequal parts by the GreenMountains, which extend through 
the whole length of the State from north to south. These mountains are 
among the most picturesque in the Union. They present four peaks, which 
are over 3,000 feet in height. Mount Mansfield rises to an altitude of 4,360 
feet above the sea level. 

Lake Champlain lies on its western border, and the Connecticut River 
forms its eastern boundary. Between the lake and the Green Mountain 
ranges is a beautiful and fertile '■oiling country, well watered by many 
streams. It has nearly one hundred smaller lakes and ponds. Its winters 
are cold and long; the summers are short and quite hot; but there are few 
portions of the United States blessed with such a healthful climate. 

Vermont was discovered by Samuel Champlain in 1609, but no settle- 
ment was attempted within its borders until 1724. It was the battle-ground 
between the Algonquin tribes, in the region of the St. Lawrence River, and 
the Iroquois, or Five Nations, in the i6th century It was while Champlain 
was with a party of the former that he discovered the beautiful lake that 
bears his name. 

From 1720 to 1725 a very distressing war was carried on between the 
eastern Indians and the New England Colonies; while the French in Canada 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 335 

stimulated the barbarians over whom they exercised control, to hostilities 
against the English. It was during that war (in 1724) that some people from 
Massachusetts built Fort Dummer, near the site of (present) Brattleborough 
in Vermont, and planted a little colony — the seed of the Commonwealth. 

Soon after the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1748, settlements in New- 
Hampshire began to extend westward of the Connecticut River, and Benning 
Wentworth, the Governor of New Hampshire, began to make grants of land 
to settlers in the region between the Connecticut and Lake Champlain.. 
These settlers were undisturbed in their possessions until 1764, when the 
British monarch, by an Order in Council, placed their territory under the 




THOMAS CHITTENDEN, MRST GOVERNOR OF VERMONT. 

jurisdiction of New York, that province claiming, by virtue of the charter ta 
the Duke of York, the Connecticut River as its eastern boundary. A mild 
dispute then arose. 

New York having relinquished its claims so far east as against Massa- 
chusetts, it was then not seriously insisted on ; and the settlers believed that 
while there was a change in territorial authority, to which they were indiffer- 
ent, the titles to the lands would not be questioned. They were mistaken. 
The Governor of New York soon notified them that their grants were illegal 
and void, and they were ordered to surrender their charters and repurchase 
their lands from the New York authorities. 

The settlers were disposed to be quiet, loyal subjects of New York, but 
this act of injustice converted them into rebellious foes, determined and de- 



336 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

fiant. They resisted, and were backed by the sympathies of the people of 
New Hampshire — aye, of all New England. They preferred to defend their 
rights even at the expense of their blood rather than submit to such injustice. 
Foremost among those who took this attitude was Ethan Allen, who became 
the leader in the border forays and irritating movements that ensued. 

The Governor and Council of New York summoned all the claimants 
under the New Hampshire grants to appear before them at Albany, with 
their evidence of possession, within three months, failing in which it was de- 
clared that the claims of all delinquents should be rejected. To this requisi- 
tion the people of the grants paid no attention. 

Meanwhile New York speculators had been purchasing from New York 
large tracts of these estates in the disputed territory, and were making prep- 
arations to take possession. The people of the grants sent one of their num- 
ber to England, who laid their cause before the King. He came back in 
August, 1767, armed with an order for the Governor of New York to abstain 
from issuing any more patents for lands eastward of Lake Champlain. But, 
as the order was not ex post facto in its operations, the New York patentees 
proceeded to take possession of their purchased lands. This speedily brought 
on a crisis, and for seven years the New Hampshire grants formed a theatre 
where all the elements of civil war, excepting actual carnage, were in active 
exercise. 

When, late in 1771, Governor Tryon, of New York, by proclamation, 
offered a reward of £20 each for the apprehension of Ethan Allen, Remember 
Baker and Robert Cochran for their " riotous opposition " to New York, these 
leaders of the " Green Mountain Boys," as they were called, issued the fol- 
lowing counter-proclamation : 

"^25 Reward. 
" Whereas, James Duane and John Kemp, of New York, have, by their 
menaces and threats, greatly disturbed the public peace and repose of the 
honest peasants of Bennington and the settlements to the northward, which 
peasants are now and ever have been in the peace of God and the King, and 
are patriotic and liege subjects of George III. Any person who shall ap- 
prehend these common disturbers, viz., James Duane and John Kemp, and 
bring them to landlord Fay's at Bennington, shall have ;^I5 reward for James 
Duane and $10 for John Kemp, paid by 

" Ethan Allen, 
" Remember Baker, 
**' Dated, Poultney, Feb. 5, 1772." "Robert Cochran.' 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 337 

The controversy between New York and the New Hampshire Grants 
paused at the beginning of the old war for independence, but the spirit of 
liberty among the settlers east of Lake Champlain, continued conspicuously 
all through the period of the war. They had assumed a provisional independ- 
ent political organization, and, in 1776, they petitioned the Continental Con- 
gress to admit them into the Union as such. New York so vehemently opposed 
their pretensions that their suit was rejected. And there was hesitation about 
accepting the services of Ethan Allen and his followers (who had captured 
Fort Ticonderoga in 1775) in the Continental army. 

A Convention held at Westminster on January 15, 1777, declared "that 
the district and territory comprehending and usually known by the name and 
description of the New Hampshire Grants, of right ought to be and is declared 
forever hereafter to be a free and independent jurisdiction or State, to be for 
ever hereafter called, known and distinguished by the name of New Connec- 
ticut or Vermont." 

New York used all its influence to prevent Congress from recognizing the 
independence of Vermont, and succeeded for a while. Meanwhile the Con- 
vention that declared its independence, met at Windsor on the first Wednes- 
day in June, and appointed a committee to draft a State Constitution. It was 
done, and in July it was adopted. A State Government was organized, with 
Thomas Chittenden as Governor, and the first Legislature met at Windsor 
on March 12, 1778. 

The Legislature of Vermont demanded of Congress its separation from 
the other States and its admission into the Union, upon a basis of perfect 
equality. Disputes ran high, and at one time, in 1779, the claims of New 
York by jurisdiction over territory in Vermont almost produced civil war. 
At this juncture a question of greater magnitude than these local disputes 
presented itself. The British authorities in Canada had eagerly watched the 
progress of the Grants with great interest, and now entertained hopes that 
Vermont would be so far alienated from the " rebel " cause by the opposition 
of New York and the injustice of Congress, as to be induced to return to its 
allegiance to the British crown. Accordingly, in the spring of 1780, Colonel 
Beverley Robinson wrote to Ethan Allen from New York, making overtures 
to that effect. The letter was delivered to Allen in the street at Arlington 
by a man disguised as a farmer. To this, and another letter written by 
Robinson in February, 1781, Allen made no reply; but early in March he sent 
the letter to Congress, with one from himself in these words: 



338 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

" I am as resolutely determined to defend the independence of Vermont 
as Congress is that of the United States, and rather than fail, I will retire 
with the hardy Green Mountain Boys into the desolate caverns of the moun- 
tains, and wage war with human nature at large." 

The shrewd Allen, Governor Chittenden, and other leaders, saw their 
advantage, and used it for the benefit of their new State. 

Meanwhile some British scouting parties had captured some Vermonters, 
and Ira, a brother of Ethan Allen, was sent to negotiate with a British ofificer 
(Colonel Dundas) for an exchange of prisoners. Under the direction of the 
commanding ofificer in Canada, Colonel Dundas made to Allen verbal over- 
tures similar to the written ones of Colonel Robinson to Ethan. They were 
received with apparent favor. The British authorities were delighted with 
their skill in diplomacy, and readily acceded to Allen's proposition not to 
allow hostilities on the Vermont frontier until after the next session of the 
Legislature. Thus the British forces, about ten thousand strong, were kept 
inactive, and Vermont was spared the infliction of their presence. 

Vague rumors of these matters got abroad, and the authorities of New 
York, and also Congress, were alarmed. General Schuyler wrote to Governor 
Clinton — " The conduct of some people at the eastward is alarmingly myste- 
rious. A flag, under pretense of settling a contest with Vermont, has been 

on the Grants. Allen has disbanded his militia Entreat General 

Washington for more Continental troops, and let me beg of your Excellency 
to hasten up here " — from Poughkeepsie. 

The coquetry of the Vermont leaders with the British continued until 
the peace in 1783, when dissimulation was no longer necessary. The shrewd 
Vermont diplomatists had been working for a twofold object, namely: to- 
keep the British troops from their territory, and to induce Congress to admit 
the independent State into the Union. They outwitted the Britons, hood- 
winked Congress, and finally gained their point. 

The difficulties were not settled until some years afterwards. Finally the 
Legislature of New York appointed commissioners, late in 1789, to settle all 
matters in controversy. It was agreed that the State of Vermont should pay 
to New York $30,000 in settlement of claims by citizens of the latter Common- 
wealth, for compensation for the land which had been granted them from 
Vermont. All other matters were amicably adjusted, and in the spring of 
1791 Vermont took its place as an independent member of the Republic. 

Vermont, like other New England States, was opposed to the war of 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 339 

1812; but the Legislature, in the fall of that year, resolved as follows: "We 
pledge ourselves to each other, and to our Government, that with our indivi- 
dual exertions, our examples and influence, we will support our Government 
and country in the present contest ; and rely on the Great Arbiter of events 
for a favorable result," 

There was vehement opposition to this declaration. In the elections in 
the fall of 1813 the Federalists gained the ascendancy, and chose Martin 
Chittenden, Governor. Party spirit was wrought up to the highest pitch. 
The Governor refused to call out the militia, and forbade troops to leave the 
State. A brigade of Vermont militia, which had been drafted into the service 
of the United States and marched to Plattsburgh, in 181 3, were discharged 
from service by a proclamation from the Governor, and ordered to return to 
the State. Their ofificers refused obedience, and sent a written protest against 
the order. Vermont volunteers, however, took an active part in the battle at 
Plattsburgh in September, 18 14. 

During the troubles in Canada in 1837-38, sympathizing Vermonters to 
the number of fully six hundred crossed the line to help the insurgents, but 
they were soon disbanded by the authorities of the United States. 

Vermont took an active part in the civil and military events of the late 
Civil War. It furnished to the National army 35,256 troops. A party of 
Confederates from Canada made a descent upon the town of St. Albans, near 
the frontier. They robbed the bank of $211,152, and committed some other 
depredations. They were pursued by a party of citizens, and were finally all 
captured by them or by the Canadian authorities. 

In spite of a rather sterile soil, Vermont yields annually large crops of 
cereals; also a large amount of wool, its mountain slopes, where not covered 
by trees, yielding rich pastures. In 1880 it had about 500,000 sheep. Its yield 
of maple sugar made it at one time the second sugar-producing State in the 
Union. 

The manufactures of Vermont are important. In 1880 there were 2,874 
manufacturing establishments, employing $23,265,224 of capital, and produc- 
ing goods to the value of $31,354,366. There were 916 miles of railway in 
operation within the State, which cost over $42,000,000. 

Ample provision is made for the education of the children of the State. 
In 1880 the number of children enrolled in its public schools was 73,237, with 
an average daily attendance of 47,200. It has three colleges and several nor- 
mal schools. 



340 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST 



Vermont has no large city. The largest is Burlington, on the shore of 
Lake Champlain. Its population in 1880 was 11,365. MontpeHer, its capi- 
tal, had only 1847 inhabitants. The name of the State is derived from the 
verdure that covers its loftiest hills, and its pseudonym is " The Green Moun- 
tain State." 





(1733.) 

Georgia was the latest settled of the thirteen original States 
of the Union. It is one of the South Atlantic States, ly- 
ing between latitude 30° 20' and 35° north, and longitude 
80° 48' and 85° 38' west. Georgia embraces an area of 
59,475 square miles, and ranked, by the census of 1880, 
thirteen among the States of the Union in population, 
which then numbered 1,542,180. Of this number 725,274, including 124 In- 
dians, were colored, or a trifle over one half. 

Tennessee and North Carolina are the neighbors of Georgia on the north ; 
on the east is South Carolina and the Atlantic Ocean; on the south is Florida, 
and on the west are Florida and Alabama. 

The surface of Georgia is flat, and abounding in marshes, for about one 
hundred miles inland. There rice is extensively cultivated. The centre of 
the State presents a fine, rolling country, while its northern and north-western 
region is traversed by ranges of the Blue Ridge Mountains, which rise in one 
instance to an altitude of 4,000 feet above the sea. The mountain district 
comprises twenty-five counties. The Savannah River divides the State from 
South Carolina. It is navigable to Augusta, 230 miles from the sea. There 
are several navigable rivers in the State for small craft. Steamers go up the 
Chattahoochee River, at certain seasons of the year, to Columbus, 350 miles 
from its mouth. It washes the western border of the State. 

Georgia was originally a part of the domain of the Carolinas. When, in 
1729, the Carolinas were surrendered to the Crown, the whole country south- 
ward of the Savannah River was a wilderness to the vicinity of St. Augustine 
in Florida, peopled by native tribes and claimed by the Spaniards as a part 
of Florida. The English disputed this claim, and war-clouds appeared. 

It was at this juncture that Colonel James Oglethorpe, an accomplished 
soldier, who had been an aide to Prince Eugene in a campaign against the 
Turks, and then a member of Parliament, commiserating the wretched condi- 



342 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

tion of prisoners for debt, in England, brought the matter before the Legisla- 
ture. He proposed the founding of a colony in America, partly for the bene- 
fit of this important class. A committee of inquiry reported favorably, and 
a plan, as proposed by Oglethorpe, was approved by King George 11. A 
royal charter was obtained (June 9, 1732) for a corporation for twenty-one 
years, " in trust for the poor," to establish a colony in the territory south of 
the Savannah River, to be called Georgia, in honor of the King. 

The management of the new settlement was intrusted to twenty-one 
"gentlemen and noblemen," who were constituted "Trustees for Settling and 
Establishing the Colony of Georgia." Colonel Oglethorpe was one of them. 




GEORGE WALTON, FIRST GOVERNOR OF GEORGIA. 

They were invested with legislative and executive powers for the government 
of the colony. At the expiration of the twenty-one years a permanent Gov- 
ernment was to be established by the King or his successor. There was no 
political liberty for the people. 

Every feature of the project commended itself to the British people. 
Donations from all ranks and classes were freely given to assist the emigrants 
in planting comfortable homes in the wilderness. The Bank of England 
made a generous gift, and the House of Commons, from time to time, voted 
money, amounting in the aggregate to $i6o,CXX). Lord Viscount Percival 
wa? chosen President of the Trustees. 

Colonel Oglethorpe generously offered to accompany the emigrants to 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 343 

their new home. All things being in readiness, thirty-five families 120 men 

women and children— sailed from Gravesend in the ship Afme, of 200 tons 
burden, on November 6, 1732. Rev. Mr. Shubert, of the Church of England, 
accompanied them as their spiritual guide, also a few Piedmontese silk-workers 
— for one object of the trustees was the growing of silk in Georgia. 

After a passage of fifty-seven days the Anne touched at Charleston, and 
gave great joy to the inhabitants, for they felt that a barrier was to be placed 
between them and the Indians and Spaniards. Landing a large portion of 
the immigrants on Port Royal Island, Governor Oglethorpe proceeded to the 
Savannah River with the remainder. Sailing up that stream about ten miles 
to Yamacraw Bluff, he laid the foundation of the future State of Georo-ia, at 
the site of (present) Savannah, in the spring of 1733. The rest of the immi- 
grants soon joined him. They built a fort and named the place Savannah. 

There Oglethorpe held a friendly conference with Creek Indians settled 
near, with Mary Musgrove, a half breed who could speak English, as inter- 
preter. Their venerable chief, To-mo-chi-chi, then ninety-one years of age, 
gave the immigrants a warm welcome, and became their fast friend. 

Within eight years 2,5CX) immigrants were sent over from England, at an 
expense of $400,(X)0. The condition on which the lands were parcelled out 
■was military duty; and so grievous were the restrictions that many colonists 
went into South Carolina, where they could procure land in fee. The colony 
•quite rapidly increased, immigrants coming from Scotland and Germany. 

In 1734 Oglethorpe went to England, and returned in 1736 with 300 immi- 
grants, among them 150 Highlanders skilled in military affairs, with several 
cannons. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, and his brother Charles, 
were among them. They came to preach the Gospel among the settlers and 
surrounding barbarians. Moravians also came to Georgia with Oglethorpe 
and his soldiers. They were soon followed by George Whitefield, who was 
destined to make a great stir in the colonies as an evangelist. With his 
Highlanders and his cannons, Oglethorpe felt confident that he could defend 
his colony against all intruders. A test was soon presented. 

The Spaniards at St. Augustine were jealous of the thriving English col- 
ony, and showed signs of hostility soon after Oglethorpe's return. The Gov- 
ernor prepared for expected trouble by building some forts in the direction 
of the Castilian stronghold. He went to several of the coast islands and 
made preparations for defensive works. On St. Simon's island he erected a 
fort and founded Frederica. He planned a little military work on a small 



344 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

island at the entrance of the St. Johns River, which he named Fort George. 
He also founded Augusta, far up the Savannah River, and built a stockade 
there as a defense against Indians who might come from the west. 

These hostile preparations caused the Spanish at St. Augustine to 
threaten war. Creek tribes offered to help Oglethorpe. Through a com- 
mission the Spaniards demanded the evacuation of all Georgia and a portion 
of South Carolina by the English. Oglethorpe hastened to England to con- 
fer with the trustees and seek military strength. He returned in the autumn 
of 1738, with a commission of Brigadier-general, and entrusted with the chief 
command of all the troops in South Carolina and Georgia. 

War between England and Spain broke out in 1739. St. Augustine was 
strengthened. Oglethorpe resolved to strike a blow before the Spaniards 
should be prepared for it. He invaded Florida with a thousand white men 
and some Indians, but soon returned without achieving anything of much 
importance 

In 1742 the Spaniards retaliated. With a fleet of thirty-six vessels 
from Cuba, and a land force three thousand strong, they entered the harbor 
of St. Simon's, in July, preparatory to seizing Georgia and South Carolina. 
Oglethorpe, always vigilant, had forewarnings of this expedition, and he was 
on the island of St. Simon's before the Spaniards arrived, but with less than 
one thousand men, for South Carolina had failed to send promised men and 
supplies. The task of defending both provinces, therefore, fell upon the 
Georgians. Oglethorpe had a few vessels. 

When the Spanish vessels passed the English batteries, Oglethorpe saw 
that resistance would be futile, so he ordered his little squadron to run up 
to Frederica, while he spiked the guns on St. Simon's, fell back with his troops^ 
and waited for the Carolinians. He finally proceeded to make a night attack 
upon the Spaniards on the island. A Frenchman in his ranks, when they 
approached the enemy, ran ahead, fired his musket, deserted to the enemy, 
and aroused them to resistance. Oglethorpe fell back to Frederica. He 
sent a letter addressed to the Frenchman as a spy in the Spanish camp, di- 
recting him to represent the Georgians as very weak in numbers, and to advise 
the Castilians to attack them at once; but if they could not do so, to try and 
persuade them to remain a few days longer at St. Simon's, for within that 
time a British fleet would arrive with a thousand land troops to attack St. 
Augustine. 

This letter fell into the hands of the Spanish commander, who afterwards 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 345 

hanged the Frenchman as a spy, A council of war was held. While it was 
in session vessels from Carolina seen at sea were mistaken for the expected 
British fleet, and the Spaniards determined to attack Oglethorpe at once, 
and then hasten to the defense of St. Augustine. They advanced towards 
Frederica along a narrow defile, flanked by a forest and a morass, when they 
were assailed by the Georgians lying in ambush, who slew or made prisoners 
nearly the whole of the advanced division. A second division shared their 
fate. The Spaniards retreated in confusion, and fled to their ships. Ogle- 
thorpe had punished the deserter, outgeneralled his enemy and saved Geor- 
gia and South Carolina from utter ruin. 

Slavery in the colony of Georgia was prohibited, and the people mur- 
mured. Many settlements were abandoned for want of tillers of the soil. 
Finally, the restrictions concerning slavery were adroitly removed by allow- 
ing the colonists to contract for the services of negro laborers for ninety-nine 
years. In 1752 the trustees surrendered the colony to the Crown, and Geor- 
gia became a royal province, with political privileges similar to that of others. 

In 1755 a General Assembly was established; and in 1763 all the lands 
between the rivers Savannah and St. Mary were annexed to Georgia. The 
colony prospered. 

In the political disputes with Great Britain, previous to the war of the 
Revolution, the people of Georgia sympathized with their northern brethren, 
and bore a conspicuous part in the armed struggle which ensued. It was not 
represented in the First Continental Congress (1774), but a Provincial Con- 
gress assembled on July 4, 1775, adopted the " American Association " author- 
ized by that body. Thenceforward Georgia stood shoulder to shoulder, in the 
great strife, with its sister colonies and States in the council and in the field. 
Royal power ceased in Georgia early in 1776. Sir James Wright, who 
had ruled the province wisely as Governor since 1764, was a warm loyalist, 
though born in South Carolina. His influence kept down open resistance 
for some time. In January, 1774, the patriots arrested him, but set him free 
on parole. He violated it. On a stormy night in February he escaped to an 
armed British ship below Savannah, and so abdicated. A State Constitution 
was framed in 1777, a second one in 1785, and a third in 1798. Under the 
latter (occasionally amended) the State thrived until the Civil War (1861-65). 
George Walton, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, was, 
elected the first Governor of Georgia, in 1779. 

In 1779 General Lincoln was sent to Georgia to defend the State against 



346 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

British invasion. General Prevost, in command in East Florida, had joined 
a British force lately arrived (January) at Savannah, under Lieutenant-colonel 
Campbell. Prevost sent Campbell up the Savannah River. He took Augusta. 
South Carolina was menaced with invasion. Lincoln was at Charleston with 
less than 1,500 troops. He hastened to the protection of the fords of the 
Savannah. He crossed the river into Georgia, and in a battle at Brier Creek 
his troops were defeated and dispersed. The British now held possession of 
all Georgia, and Savannah became their headquarters in the South. 

In the fall of 1779 ^^^ British, strongly entrenched at Savannah, were 
beseiged by the Americans under Lincoln, and a French land and naval force. 
The latter deserted the Americans just as victory seemed certain, and Lin- 
coln retired to Charleston. The British held possession of Georgia until 
the close of the war, 

On June 2, 1788, the people of Georgia ratified the National Constitu- 
tion. The settlers on its western frontier suffered much from incursions of 
the Creek Indians. These incursions were ended by treaties of friendship in 
1/90-91. In 1802 the Creeks ceded to the United States a large tract of 
land which was afterwards assigned to Georgia, and now forms the south-west- 
ern counties of the State. The same year Georgia ceded all its claims to 
lands westward of its present boundaries. Difficulties finally arose between 
the State and National Governments respecting the Cherokees. On the re- 
moval of the latter to the country west of the Mississippi, in 1838, Georgia 
came into possession of all their lands. 

The political leaders in Georgia were among the most zealous and per- 
sistent advocates of Secession in i860. Foremost among them were Robert 
Toombs and Howell Cobb, the latter then Secretary of the Treasury in Presi- 
dent Buchanan's cabinet. A majority of the people of the State were opposed 
to Secession, but could not effectually restrain the Secessionists. 

Early in January, 1861, elections were held for members of a Convention 
to consider the subject of Secession. Alexander H. Stephens, the ablest 
statesman in Georgia, though believing in the rigJit of the State to secede, 
opposed the measure as unnecessary and full of danger to the public welfare. 
Mr. Toombs, a popular leader, by impassioned harangues, circulars and tele- 
graphic despatches, carried masses of the more unthinking people with him. 
He was one of the most active of the enemies of the Republic at that time, 
in and out of Congress, and worked persistently to precipitate his State into 
revolution, and succeeded. 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 347 

The Convention assembled at Milledgeville, the capital of the State, on 
January 16. A decided majority of the 295 members present were opposed 
to Secession, But that majority was speedily changed. On the i8th a reso- 
lution was passed by a vote of 165 against 130, declaring it to be the right and 
the duty of the State to withdraw from the Union. A committee was appointed 
to draft an ordinance of Secession. It was reported on the same day. It was 
very short — a single paragraph — and simply declared the repeal and abroo-a- 
tion of all laws which bound the Commonwealth to the Union, and that the 
State of Georgia was in " full possession and exercise of all the rights of sover- 
eignty which belong and appertain to a free and independent State." 

This ordinance elicited many warm expressions of Union sentiments. Mr. 
Stephens made a powerful speech in favor of the Union, and he and his brother 
voted against the ordinance. But, unlike Henry Clay, who on one occasion 
in Congress said, " If Kentucky to-morrow unfurls the banner of resistance 
[to the Union] I will never fight under that banner. I owe a paramount 
allegiance to the whole Union, a subordinate one to my own State," Mr. 
Stephens, when the ordinance was adopted by a vote of 208 against 89 (Jan- 
uary 19, 1 861), arose and declared his intention to go with his State. He after- 
wards became Vice-President of the Southern Confederacy, of which Jefferson 
Davis was chosen President, and was one of the most urgent advocates of the 
seizure of the National capital. 

A resolution to submit the ordinance of Secession to the people for rati- 
fication or rejection was lost by a large majority. Not one of the Secession 
ordinances of the seven States wherein such action was taken was ever al- 
lowed to go before the people for their consideration. 

At this point in the proceedings, a copy of the resolutions of the State 
of New York (see New York), tendering to the President all of the available 
forces of the State to stay the rising tempest of revolution, was received, and 
produced much excitement. Mr. Toombs immediately offered the following 
resolution, which was adopted unanimously: 

"As a response to the resolution of New York, this Convention highly 
approve of the energetic and patriotic conduct of the Governor of Georgia 
in taking possession of Fort Pulaski by Georgia troops , and request him to 
hold possession until the relations of Georgia with the Federal Government be 
determined by this Convention; and that a copy of this resolution be ordered 
to be transmitted to the Governor of New York." The Convention chose 
delegates to the proposed General Convention at Montgomery, in Alabama. 



348 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

The Governor of Georgia had ordered the seizure of all property of the 
United States within its borders. In the four years' war that ensued, the 
State suffered much. The war made havoc on its coasts and in the interior. 
General Sherman swept through it from Atlanta to the sea at near the close of 
1864, "living off the country." Within its borders the President of the Con- 
federacy was captured, and taken to Fortress Monroe a state prisoner, in the 
spring of 1865. 

In June, 1865, a provisional Governor was appointed for Georgia. A 
Convention held at Milledgeville, late in October, repealed the Ordinance of 
Secession, declared the war debt void, amended the Constitution so as to 
abolish slavery, and in November the people elected a Governor, Legislature 
and members of Congress. That body did not approve these measures, and 
the Senators and Representatives were not admitted to seats. 

In 1867 Georgia, with Florida, was constituted a military district, and 
placed under military rule. In March, 1868, a Convention held at Atlanta 
framed a satisfactory Constitution, which was ratified in April by a majority 
of nearly 18,000 votes. On June 25 following, Congress by act, provided for 
the re-admission of Georgia, with other States, upon their ratification of the 
Fourteenth amendment to the National Constitution. 

Owing to a violation of the so-called " Reconstruction Act," in not per- 
mitting colored men, legally elected, to occupy seats in the Legislature, 
Georgia representatives were not permitted to take seats in Congress. The 
Supreme Court of the State decided that negroes were entitled to hold 
ofifice. A new election was held, and on January 31, 1869, the State Legisla- 
ture was duly organized. All the requirements of Congress were acceded 
to, and by an act of that body, on July 15, Georgia was fully re-admitted to 
the Union on an equality with the other States. Its delegates took their 
seats in Congress in December, 1869. 

The soil of the alluvial lands of Georgia is very rich. Its chief agricul- 
tural products are cotton and maize, or Indian corn. The cotton crop in 
1880 was 814,441 bales, and its yield of Indian corn was 23,202,018 bushels. 
Its other cereal products were large. It yielded 25,369,687 pounds of rice. 

Georgia is becoming a largely manufacturing State, especially of wood 
products from its unrivalled forests of yellow pine. It is increasing in its 
manufacture of textile fabrics, especially of cotton goods. In 1880 it had 
forty cotton mills. Its manufactures of iron, steel and woollen goods are 
quite extensive. The products of all its manufactures, in 1880, aggregated in 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 349 

value $36,440,948, of which $6,481,894 were from cotton goods. There were^ 
in 1880, 2673 miles of railroads in operation within the State. The assessed 
valuations of real and personal estate in Georgia at that time was $239,472,- 
599, the true valuation being estimated at $313,067,293. 

Georgia has provided well for the education of its children. In 1880 
there were 226,627 out of 433,444, of school age, enrolled in its public schools, 
but the average daily attendance was only 132,000. There were 34,000 in 
private schools. There are seven universities and colleges in the State. 

The largest city in Georgia is Atlanta, its capital, which contained, in 
1880, 37,409 inhabitants. Its population is rapidly increasing. Savannah had 
30,709, and Augusta 21,891. 

The sobriquet of " The Empire State of the South " has been given to 
Georgia. 





(1775.) 

One of the Central States of the Valley of the Mississippi 
is Kentucky, which embraces an area of 40,400 square 
miles, and a population, in 1880, of 1,648,690, of whom 
271,511, including fifty Indians, were colored. It lies 
between latitude 36° 30' and 39° 6' north, and longitude 
82° 3' and 89° 26' west. North and north-west of it are 
the States of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, from which it is separated by the 
Ohio River. On the east are Virginia and West Virginia, on the south is 
Tennessee, and on its extreme south-western border is the Mississippi River, 
that separates it for about fifty miles from Missouri. It is extremely irregu- 
lar in shape. 

The surface of Kentucky presents two special aspects — a mountain 
district and table land. The former is in the east and south-east part of the 
State, and covers about 4000 square miles. The Cumberland Mountains 
separate it from Virginia. None of the ridges are very lofty — not one ex- 
ceeds 3000 feet. The two larger tributaries of the Ohio River — the Cumber- 
land and the Tennessee — have their ultimate sources in the mountain districts 
of Kentucky. The whole State presents a beautiful and picturesque aspect. 

It is not known that the foot of any Anglo-Saxon trod the soil of Kain- 
tuck-ee, as the Indians called the beautiful river that flows through portions 
of the State which bears its name, before the middle of the i8th century, 
when the pale-faced pioneer went there. It was the favorite hunting ground 
of dusky tribes of men, who were disposed to dispute his right to intrude 
upon their domain. They were not the original occupants of the soil, for 
indications exist which point to a race of higher civilization, who were 
dwellers there a thousand years ago. 

The earliest white visitors to the territory of Kentucky, who made a part 
of its early history, were Daniel Boone and his companions, who hunted and 
explored its wilds as early as 1769. Dr Walker was in the north-eastern part 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 351 

of Kentucky nine or ten years before, and John Finley, a backwoodsman, 
had made quite extensive explorations in 1767. 

Boone was a famous hunter from his early youth. At the age of nine- 
teen years he accompanied his family to western North Carolina, from their 
home in Pennsylvania. There he married Rebecca Bryan soon afterward. 
Hunting was his pastime and his pursuit. After the French lost their influ- 
ence over the Cherokee Indians on the frontiers of North Carolina and 
Virginia, professional hunters of Pennsylvania and Virginia, hearing of the 
fine hunting grounds west of the mountains, went thither. 

In March, 1769, Boone led one of these hunting parties — five congenial 
spirits — into Kentucky. " I resigned my domestic happiness, for a time," he 




ISAAC SHELBY, FIRST GOVERNOR OF KENTUCKY. 

said, " and left my family and peaceable habitation on the Yadkin River, in 
North Carolina, to wander through the wildernesses of America in quest of 
the country of Kentucky." His loving wife had consented to the undertak- 
ing. He was then thirty-four years of age, and had sons old enough to till 
the little farm on which they dwelt. 

The hunters and explorers soon saw the beautiful land of Kentucky from 
a mountain summit, on the 6th of June. They caught glimpses of the Ken- 
tucky River, coursing through the rolling country. There they hunted the 
deer and the buffalo, with which the country abounded. They saw no ot]:er 
human beings but themselves until December, The Shawnees had lived 
and roamed in that region, but the Cherokees claimed it as their own hunting 
ground. 



352 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

Early in 1770 Boone and his companion were joined by his brother and 
another hunter. They gathered much peltry. Boone and his brother 
remained in the wilderness, while the others returned. Daniel was captured 
by Indians, but escaped. Having fixed on a place to plant a settlement, 
the brothers returned home in the spring of 1771. 

In the autumn of 1773 Boone and his brother returned to Kentucky. 
They had some fights with Indians, and in 1775 they built a fort of log- 
houses and stockades at the site of (present) Boonesborough, on the Ken- 
tucky River, in Madison County, about eighteen miles south-east of Lexington. 
There, in September, Boone's wife and daughters joined him, and other 
families soon came. 

Other parties of hunters, explorers, and surveyors had followed the 
Boones. In 1774 James Harrod erected a log-cabin on the site of (present) 
Harrodsburgh, and the place rapidly grew into a station, probably the oldest 
in Kentucky. During the same year Colonel Richard Henderson purchased 
from the Cherokee Indians all of Kentucky south of the Kentucky River. 
He employed Daniel Boone to survey the country, and select suitable posi- 
tions for "stations" or settlements. Henderson had roseate dreams of 
manorial possessions and privileges, and named his domain " Transylvania." 
The Legislature of Virginia subsequently declared his purchase null and 
void, for it claimed the sole right to buy lands from the Indians within the 
bounds of its royal charter. 

In the summer of 1776 three young women of Boonesborough, one of 
them a daughter of Daniel Boone, were captured by Indians, but were 
recovered forty-five miles from their home after a desperate encounter with 
the barbarians. To such dangers the hardy settlers were long exposed. 

In the winter of 1776-77 the Legislature of Virginia formed Kentucky 
into a territory of that Commonwealth. The first court was held at Harrods- 
burgh in the spring of 1777. It had just adjourned when the infant State was 
smitten by an Indian invasion. Harrodsburgh, Boonesborough, and other 
stations were furiously attacked, and the hunters and surveyors were driven 
wathin the stockade from the forest. The invasion lasted several weeks, but 
the barbarians were slowly driven back toward the Ohio. The settlers were 
re-enforced during the summer by forty-five men from North Carolina, and 
in September by one hundred men from Virginia. 

In the spring of 1778 Boone and a party engaged in making salt at the 
Lower Blue Licks were captured by Indians and Canadians, and carried to 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 353 

Detroit, where they were delivered to the English commandant. Boone was 
reserved by the Indians and taken to Chillicothe, where he saw a large body 
of barbarians prepared for a descent upon Boonesborough. He managed to 
escape and give the alarm among all the settlements in Kentucky in time for 
them to make preparations for the attack. His escape disconcerted the en- 
terprise, and the barbarians did not invade Kentucky. 

During the whole period of the old war for independence the settlements 
in Kentucky were continually menaced with destruction by the Indians from 
the northward, incited by the British at Detroit. The brave and skillful 
Colonel George Rogers Clarke became their effectual shield. He had been 
in Kentucky in 1775, when he took temporary command of the armed settlers 
there. In 1778 he captured a region bordering on the Mississippi, which was 
organized into Illinois county under the jurisdiction of Virginia. He in- 
spired the Indians and the British at Detroit with such wholesome fear, that 
the infant republic south of the Ohio River was spared from ruin. 

At the close of the Revolution the settlers in Kentucky desired the 
independence of home rule. Conventions held at Danville in 1784-85 
recommended a peaceable and constitutional separation from Virginia. In 
compliance with these desires, the Legislature of Virginia passed an act for 
such separation in January, 1786. Its terms required another Convention at 
Danville, to determine whether they were acceptable to the people, and, if 
so, for the Kentuckians to fix upon a day when the authority of Virginia 
should cease within their domain. 

The population had now greatly increased. The people generally ac- 
quiesced in the terms of separation proposed by Virginia, and yet there were 
many signs of discontent, and long delays occurred. The retention of the 
British posts in the north-west after the war for independence had ceased, 
allowed the British in that region to continue to incite the Indians to hostili- 
ties, while the States in the East were enjoying the tranquillity of peace. 
The National Government appeared utterly unable to defend Kentucky from 
Indian forays. 

The Kentuckians had no Government at home, and their rulers beyond 
the mountains could not or would not protect them. Added to this cause of 
discontent, Congress had bartered away the right to navigate the Mississippi 
River. 

Here was a field for the work of intriguers. Colonel (afterward General) 
James Wilkinson, of the Revolution, was a resident of Kentucky, and was a 



354 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

candidate for a seat in Convention at Danville as a representative of Fayette 
county. In that canvass he boldly advocated secession from the Union. He 
counselled an immediate declaration of independence, as the exigencies of the 
country, he said, would not allow them to wait. He was the first public man 
who gave utterance to such sentiments. There were earnest opposers of his 
views everywhere, and so loudly was he condemned that he was compelled to 
greatly modify his utterances. He was elected by only a few majority. 

The Legislature of Virginia was induced by existing circumstances to 
revise its act. Another Convention was held at Danville, in September, 1787, 
when the time for the authority of Virginia in Kentucky to cease was fixed at 
January i, 1789. Up to that time no newspaper had been published in Ken- 
tucky. 

There were now other causes of delay in the drama of the fate of Ken- 
tucky, and the public were much excited, especially by a refusal of Congress 
to admit the territory into the Union. But the people were pat'-iotic, and 
would not listen with patience to the illegal schemes advocated by Wilkinson. 
Other conventions were held. 

Meanwhile the National Government had gone into operation under the 
new Constitution, with Washington as President of the Republic. Protection 
to the Kentuckians was promptly furnished. In July, 1790, an eighth Con- 
vention accepted the Virginia act of separation. In December, 1790, Wash- 
ington strongly recommended to Congress the admission of Kentucky into 
the Union, and on February 4, 1791, an act for that purpose became a law. 
A ninth Convention, held in April, framed a State Constitution, and Kentucky 
was admitted into the Union as a State on June i, 1792. Its population at 
that time was about 75,000. Isaac Shelby was elected its first Governor. 

For several years much uneasiness was felt among the people of Ken- 
tucky on account of Indian forays, and especially because of the non- 
admission of the free navigation of the Mississippi River by the Spanish 
possessors of Louisiana. The question was settled and all uneasiness was 
allayed by the purchase of Louisiana from the French in 1803. (See Louis- 
iana^ 

Kentucky took an active part in the second war for independence (1812- 
15), sending about 7000 men to the field. They were the principal actors in 
the military events in the north-west during that war, and which broke the 
power of the barbarians, and gave peace to the whole country west of the 
mountains which stretch north and south from the recfion of the St. Law- 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 355 

rence to Alabama. In the war with Mexico, Kentucky gave more than its 
quota of volunteers. 

The progress of the State was rapid. A second Constitution, made in 
1800, continued in force until the present one was adopted in 1850. After 
the war of 1812-15 the State was undisturbed by any stirring events until the 
breaking out of the Civil War in 1861. 

Kentucky being a border State, it held a position of great importance 
during the Civil War. Its population in i860 was 1,155,684, of whom 271,511 
were colored. The people, generally, were strongly attached to the Union, 
but many of the most influential of its political leaders sympathised with the 
Secessionists. The action of that State was awaited with great anxiety 
throughout the Union. The attitude of defiance of the National authority 
assumed by the Governor caused a great Union meeting to be held at 
Louisville on the evening of April 18, 1861, at which it was resolved that 
Kentucky reserved to herself " the right to choose her own position ; and 
that while her natural sympathies are with those who have a common interest 
in the protection of Slavery, she still acknowledges her loyalty and fealty to 
the Government of the United States, which she will cheerfully render until 
that Government becomes aggressive, tyrannical, and regardless of our rights 
in Slave property," 

They declared that the States were the peers of the National Govern- 
ment, and gave the world to understand that the latter should not be allowed 
to use " sanguinary or coercive measures to bring back the seceded States." 
They pledged equal fidelity to the State of Kentucky and to the United 
States. They alluded to the " Kentucky State Guard " as the " bulwark of 
the safety of the Commonwealth." That " Guard " was under the command 
of Simon B. Buckner, a Captain in the United States army, who appears to 
have been a sympathiser with the Secessionists; for when the Legislature 
required the " Guard " to swear allegiance to the United States and the State 
of Kentucky, Buckner would not do so himself nor allow his troops to do 
so ; and it was not long before he led a large portion of that Guard into the 
Confederate camp, and became a Major-General in the Confederate army. 

The Governor of Kentucky issued a proclamation of neutrality, which 
not only forbade the United States and " Confederate States " " invading the 
soil of Kentucky," but also forbade the citizens of Kentuc <y making " any 
hostile demonstration against any of the aforesaid sovereignties." 

The neutrality of Kentucky was respected several months. It gave the 



336 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

Secessionists of that State and Tennessee time to prepare for revolutionary 
action. The Confederate Government gave solemn assurance that the neu- 
trality should be respected, but on September 4, 1861, General (Bishop) Polk, 
with a considerable force, seized a strong position at Columbus, Kentucky. 
He excused the violation of Kentucky neutrality by alleging that the 
National troops had done the same. The Confederate Secretary of War 
publicly telegraphed to Polk to withdraw his troops. President Davis pri- 
vately telegraphed to him to hold on, saying, " The end justifies the means." 

In the autumn of 1861, General A. S. Johnston was in command of the 
Confederate " Western Department," which included Southern and Western 
Kentucky and the State of Tennessee. Under the shadow of this power the 
Secessionists of Kentucky met in convention at Russellville, October 29, and 
passed an ordinance of Secession; declared the State independent; organized 
a provisional Government ; chose a provisional Governor; appointed delegates 
to the Confederate Congress at Richmond, and called Bowling Green the 
State capital. Fifty-one counties were represented in that " Sovereignty 
Convention " by about two hundred men, without the sanction of the 
people. 

Kentucky was scarred by battles and raids, plundered by marauding 
invasions, and scourged by heavy losses almost everywhere during the war. 
On July 5, 1864, the President proclaimed martial law in Kentucky, but the 
civil law was restored in 1865. The illegal government established was 
harmlessly represented in the Confederate Congress. As it did not affect 
the integrity of the State Constitution, when the war was over Kentucky 
resumed its normal constitutional functions. The Legislature refused to 
ratify the Fifteenth amendment to the Constitution. 

Agriculture is the chief industry of Kentucky. A large. proportion of 
the State is exceedingly fertile, and produces a great variety of crops in 
abundance. The raising of fine stock is also largely pursued. Tobacco is 
extensively cultivated. The famous " Blue Grass " region is specially pro- 
ductive. The peculiarity of that species of grass is that, falling down as it 
ripens, the lower portion of its stalk is protected, and furnishes nutritious 
grazing in winter as well as in summer. In 1880 Kentucky had 372,648 
horses, 843,794 cattle, and 1,000,296 sheep. 

Kentucky has extensive manufactures, those of iron and steel alone em- 
ploying a capital of $5,493,085, and yielding products valued at $5,090,029 in 
1880. It had then about 1600 miles of railways in operation within its 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 



357 



borders, which cost $69,262,000. The assessed value of the real and personal 
taxable property of the State was $350,563,971. 

Of its 345,161 children of school age in 1880, 260,581 were enrolled in 
the public schools, with an average daily attendance of 192,231. The State 
-expended for public schools in 1880 $1,162,944. 

Kentucky has been nicknamed " The Corn-Cracker State." 




(1758.) 




Directly west of North Carolina, and extending from> 
that State to the Missisippi River, Hes Tennessee, oc- 
cupying an area of 42,050 square miles, and containing- 
in 1880, a population of 1,542,359, of whom 403,151, in- 
cluding 352 Indians, Avere colored. The State lies 
between latitude 36° 30' north, and longitude 81° 37' 
and 90° 28' west. On its northern boundary are Kentucky and Virginia; on 
its southern borders are the States of Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia;, 
and beyond the Mississippi, on the west, are Arkansas and Missouri. 

The face of Tennessee may be properly divided, in aspect, into eight 
natural divisions. On its eastern border are the Appalachian ranges, called 
Unaca Mountains, covering an area of 2000 square miles, and rising, at one 
point, 5000 feet above the sea. On the west of this range is the fertile valley 
of East Tennessee. Next lies the Cumberland table-land, a rocky plateau of 
about 1500 square miles, and an average height of 2000 feet above the sea 
level. From the western line of this plateau are the Terrace lands, which 
extend to the Tennessee River — a fine agricultural region, covering over 9000 
square miles. Here is found the Great Central Basin, appearing like the bed 
of a drained lake, and very productive. The West valley of the Lower 
Tennessee occupies about 2000 square miles. Thence stretching toward the. 
Mississippi is the rolling slope of West Tennessee, about eighty-four miles in 
width, the soil of which is light and porous, and quite fertile. The slope 
embraces about 850 square miles. 

Tennessee was originally a part of the Carolinas, and was claimed as a 
part of the hunting grounds of the Chickasaws, Choctaws, Shawnoese, and 
even by the Iroquois. After the two Carolina provinces were separated, in 
1729, North Carolina claimed Tennessee as a part of its domain, and defined 
its boundaries as of equal width with its own, and extending to the Missis- 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE V/EST. 359 

sippi River. No Indian tribe made that region its fixed habitation excepting 
the Cherokees, who dwelt in the extreme south-east part. 

In the year 1756 the Earl of Loudoun, then Governor of Virginia, sent 
Andrew Lewis into the Tennessee region to plant a settlement and build a 
fort. He erected Fort Loudoun on the Tennessee River, about thirty miles 
from the site of (present) Knoxville. The colony was planted in 1758. 
Two years later the fort was attacked by the Cherokees after great provoca- 
tion. 

While returning from their expedition against Fort Duquesne, in 1758, 
along the mountains of Western Carolina, the Indians got into a quarrel with 
some of the white settlers, when several of both parties were killed. Some 




JOHN SEVIER, FIRST GOVERNOR OF TENNESSEE. 

Cherokee chiefs were sent to Charleston to arrange an amicable settlement 
of the dispute. They were treated contemptuously by the Governor of 
South Carolina, and soon afterwards the latter, with 1500 men, invaded the 
Cherokee country. The troops were Virginians and Carolinians. They 
demanded the slayers of the white people. The Cherokees were prepared 
for war, and the Governor was glad to make the insubordination of his 
soldiers and the prevalence of the small-pox an excuse for withdrawing from 
the country. He accepted twenty-two Indian hostages as a security for 
peace and the delivery of the slayers, and then fled eastward in haste and 
confusion in June, 1760. 

These hostages, who included some chiefs and warriors, were placed in 
Fort George, at the head waters of the Savannah River. The Cherokees 



36o THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

attempted to rescue them, and in the affray a soldier was wounded, when his 
companions, inflamed with anger, put all the hostages to death. 

This perfidy aroused the whole Cherokee nation. They beleaguered the 
fort, and a war-party scourged the frontiers. The fort was captured and 
the inmates were massacred or carried into captivity. A distressing war 
ensued, which lasted about a year, when it was ended by South Carolina 
troops and British regulars. In June, 1761, the Indians sued for peace. 
Already armed men from Virginia and the Carolinas had retaken Fort Lou- 
doun. After that settlements increased in that region, particularly on the 
Holston and Watauga rivers. They formed a community called the 
"Watauga Association," which flourished from 1769 to 1777. . They had a 
representative in the Legislature of North Carolina for the " District of 
Washington." 

In 1784 North Carolina ceded its western lands (Tennessee) to the 
United States. The people of East Tennessee, piqued at being thus disposed 
of, feeling the burden of State taxation, and alleging that no provision had 
been made for their defense or administration of justice, assembled in Con- 
vention at Jonesborough to take measures for organizing a new and indepen- 
dent State. The North Carolina Legislature repealed the act of cession the 
same year, made the Tennessee counties a separate military district, with 
John Sevier Brigadier-General; and also a separate judicial district, with 
proper officers. 

Ambitious men urged the people to go forward to the goal of indepen- 
dence; and at a second Convention at the same place (December 14, 1784) 
they resolved to form an independent State under the name of Frankland, so 
called in honor of Benjamin Franklin. A provincial Government was 
formed; General Sevier was chosen Governor in March, 1785; the machinery 
of an independent State was put in motion, and the Governor of North Car- 
olina (Martin) was officially informed that the counties of Sullivan, Washing- 
ton and Greene, were no longer a part of the State of North Carolina. 

This secession movement produced much excitement. Governor Martin 
issued a proclamation exhorting all engaged in the movement to return to their 
duty. The Assembly passed an Act of Oblivion as to all who should submit. 
The warning was unheeded. In November, 1785, the provisional Constitution 
of Frankland, based, in its construction, upon that of North Carolina, was 
adopted as a permanent one, when the new State entered upon an indepen- 
dent career. 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 361 

Rivalries and jealousies soon shook the new State to its centre. These 
crystallized into parties. The people were divided and bewildered. Finally 
a third party arose which exhibited much and rapidly increasing strength. 
It favored adherence to North Carolina. This party was led by Colonel 
Tipton. It sent a delegate to the North Carolina Legislature, who was 
received. A delegate to represent Frankland was sent to the National Con- 
gress, but was not received. 

Party spirit now ran high. Frankland had two sets of officers. Collis- 
ions were constantly occurring, and civil war seemed to be inevitable. The 
inhabitants of South-western Virginia sympathized with the revolutionists,, 
and were inclined to secede from their own State. At length a collision 
between armed men, led respectively by Sevier and Tipton, occurred. Sevier 
was defeated. He was arrested and taken to prison in irons. This was a 
death-blow to the State of Frankland. The Assembly passed an Act of 
Oblivion, offered pardon to all offenders in Frankland, and in 1788 the terri- 
tory was reunited to the parent State. 

Virginia, alarmed by this revolutionary movement, which had affected its 
own citizens, hastened to pass a law subjecting to the penalty of treason any 
person or persons who should attempt to erect a new State in any part of its 
territory without previous permission being obtained from the Assembly. 

In 1789 North Carolina again ceded its " territory beyond the moun- 
tains " to the United States; and in 1790 it was organized into the " Territory 
of Tennessee." A distinct Territorial Government was granted to Tennessee. 
The first Legislature met at Knoxville. The census revealed the fact, the 
next year, that it contained a sufficient population to entitle it to admission 
as a State, and measures were taken for that purpose. It contained 77,262 
inhabitants, of whom 10,613 were slaves. On June i, 1796, Tennessee was 
admitted into the Union as a State. General John Sevier was elected its 
first Governor, served two terms, and was re-elected in 1803. The Constitu- 
tion then framed was amended in 1835 and again in 1853. 

The people of Tennessee took an active part in the second war for inde- 
pendence. A week after the declaration of war in 18 12, the tidings of that 
event reached General Andrew Jackson, at the " Hermitage," twelve miles 
from Nashville, when he immediately authorized Governor Blount to tender 
to the President of the United States himself and 2500 men. The offer was 
gladly accepted, and the Secretary of War tendered his thanks to Jackson, 
and his volunteers. 



Z62 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

A call was soon made upon Tennessee for troops, and in January about 
two-thirds of the best young citizens of the State, led by Jackson, started for 
New Orleans to reinforce General Wilkinson there. After many hardships 
the troops reached Natches, on the Mississippi, where they met an order 
from Wilkinson to halt there, as he had no instructions concerning their 
employment, nor quarters for their accommodation. Finally, in March, 
1813, Jackson received a letter from Armstrong, the new Secretary*of War, 
telling him that the causes for calling out the Tennessee volunteers had 
ceased to exist, and ordering him to dismiss them from the public service, 
and turn over to Wilkinson all public property in his hands. The letter con- 
cluded with the tender of a cold and formal letter of thanks of the President. 

This cruel letter greatly exasperated Jackson. It dismissed his army 500 
miles from home, without pay, without sufficient clothing, without provisions 
or means of transportation through a wilderness in which barbarians only 
roamed. The hero, then forty-six years of age, disobeyed the order. He 
wrote a liery letter to the President and the Secretary of War. The latter 
apologized, saying he did not know that Jackson had moved far from Nash- 
ville when he wrote his orders. 

Through great sufferings the volunteers marched back through the 
wilderness to Nashville, taking a month in making their journey, and were 
then dismissed. Other Tennessee troops under John Coffee and other leaders 
performed eminent services in the Gulf region during the war, and against the 
Creek Indians. Jackson's soldiers, who admired his persistence and endurance, 
said he was " as tough as a hickory," and from this circumstance he was 
called ever afterwards " Old Hickory." He won the battle of New Orleans, 
and saved the Southern States from invasion and possible conquest by the 
British. 

Like those of Kentucky, the large majority of the people of Tennessee 
were opposed to Secession. They loved the Union supremely, but their 
Governor was an active and persistent enemy of the Republic. He had been 
for months in confidential correspondence with the public enemies in the 
Gulf States, and in Virginia and South Carolina. He labored incessantly to 
effect the secession of Tennessee. He called a special session of the Legisla- 
ture at Nashville on January 7, 1861, and in his message he recited a long list 
of alleged grievances which the people had suffered under the authority of 
the National Government. He recommended amendments of the National 
Constitution, favorable to the perpetuation of the slave-labor system. 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 363 

The Legislature provided for a Convention, but decreed that when the 
people should elect the delegates they should vote for " Convention " or " No 
Convention; " also that any ordinance adopted by the Convention concerning 
" Federal Relations," should not be valid until submitted to the people for 
ratification or rejection. The election was held on February 9, and the 
Union candidates were elected by an aggregate majority of about 65,000, 
and by a majority of nearly 12,000 decided not to have a Convention. The 
loyal people were gratified, and believed that the Secession movement in the 
State would cease. It was a delusive belief and hope. 

The Governor called another session of the Legislature on April 25, 
1 861, and in his message to that body strongly urged the immediate secession 
•of the State. He urged that there was no propriety in wasting time in sub- 
mitting the question to the people, for a revolution was imminent. A few 
days later a commissioner of the " Confederate States of America," clothed 
with authority to negotiate a treaty of alliance, appeared before the Legisla- 
ture. He argued that there was not a true-hearted man in all the South 
who would not spurn submission to the "Abolition North," and who did not 
consider the system of Government founded on Slavery, which had just been 
established, as the only form of government that could be maintained in 
America. 

On the first of May the Legislature, in which there was now a majority 
of Secessionists, authorized the Governor to enter into a military league with 
the Confederate States, by which the whole military rule of the Common- 
wealth would be subjected to the will of the President of the Confederacy. 
It was done on the 7th of May. Eighteen members from East Tennessee 
(which section remained loyal) did not vote. An act was passed to submit to 
the people of Tennessee a declaration of independence and an ordinance of 
Secession; also an ordinance for the adoption of the Constitution of the 
" Confederate States." So Tennessee was bound to the fortunes of the Con- 
federacy. The authorities of that State were also bound to turn over to the 
" Confederate States all the public property, naval stores, and munitions of 
war of which they might then be in possession, acquired from the United 
States, on the same terms and in the same manner as the other States of the 
Confederacy.' 

The Governor had already (April 29) ordered the seizure of Tennessee 
"bonds to the amount of $66,000, and $5000 in cash, belonging to the United 
States; and at about the same time Jefferson Davis, the President of the 



364 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

Confederacy, disgusted with " Kentucky timidity," recommended the Ken- 
tuckians who were " true to the South," to go into Tennessee, and there rally 
and organize. The Governor was empowered to raise 50,000 volunteers for 
" the defense of the State," and, if necessary, to call out the whole available 
military strength of the Commonwealth, to be under the immediate and 
absolute control of the Governor. He was also authorized to issue bonds of 
the State to the amount of $500,000, to bear an annual interest of eight per 
cent. So the purse and the sword of Tennessee were placed in the hands of 
the disloyal Governor before the people were allowed to be heard on the 
vital subject of Secession from the Union. 

Yet loyal men in the Commonwealth, in face of threatened violence, and 
by competent authority, openly declared that the vote was against Secession 
in Tennessee by a large majority. And equally competent authority de- 
clared that the change of figures at Nashville, by the Governor and his con- 
federates, seemed to authorize him to proclaim, as he did (June 24, 1861)^ 
that the vote in the State was 104,913 for Secession and 47,238 against 
Secession. 

During the war that ensued Tennessee became a theatre of most distress- 
ing events. The people suffered intensely. These sufferings ceased only 
when General Hood was driven from Tennessee after the battle at Nashville, 
in December, 1864. Tennessee furnished 31,000 volunteer soldiers for the 
National army. 

On January 9, 1865, a State Convention assembled at Nashville, and pro- 
posed amendments to the Constitution of the Commonwealth abolishing 
Slavery and prohibiting the Legislative recognition of property in man. The 
military league with the Confederacy, the ordinance of Secession, and all 
acts of the " Confederate States " Government were annulled, and the pay- 
ment of any debts contracted by that Government was prohibited. 

Meanwhile, William G. Brownlow had been elected Governor of Tennes- 
see. These proceedings just mentioned were ratified by him and by the 
Legislature. In April, 1865, the Legislature ratified the Thirteenth amend- 
ment of the National Constitution ; reorganized the State Government, and 
elected Senators to Congress. The Fourteenth amendment of the Constitu- 
tion having been ratified by the State in 1866, it was soon afterwards- 
admitted to representation in Congress. The State Constitution was revised 
early in 1871. 

The staple agricultural products of Tennessee are cotton and Indiart 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 



365 



corn. It ranked ninth in product of corn among the States in 1880, 
yielding that year 62,764,429 bushels, and the product of cotton was 330.621 
bales. It is also an extensive stock-raising State. It may not be reckoned 
as a manufacturing State to any great extent. Its industries are diversified. 
Its iron and steel manufactures, in 1880, amounted in value to $2,274,203. 
There are nearly 2000 miles of railroads in operation within the Common- 
wealth, which cost $114,776,000. 

The provisions for popular education in Tennessee are liberal. In 1880 
there were 544,862 children of school age, of whom 291,500 were enrolled in 
public schools, with an average daily attendance of 205,081. The State ex- 
pended for public schools that year $786,000. There were 1450 private 
schools, with 41,000 pupils. The State has twenty-one universities and 
colleges. 

Tennessee is an Indian word, signifying " River of the Big Bend," allud- 
ing to its course from its sources in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky, 
down into Alabama, and up through Tennessee and Kentucky into the Ohio 
River. It is sometimes called " the Big Bend State." 




C'p.^ 





(1788.) 

Ohio is one of the Central States of the Union, lying be- 
tween latitude 38° 23' and 41° 58' north, and longitude 80° 
31' and 84° 48' west. Lake Erie and a part of the State 
of Michigan form its northern boundary. On the east is 
Pennsylvania and West Virginia; on the south Kentucky^ 
and on the west Indiana. It is separated from West Vir- 
ginia and Kentucky by the Ohio River, while a larger portion of its northern 
shore is washed by the waters of Lake Erie. Ohio embraces 41,060 square 
miles of territory, and in 1880 it contained a population of 3,198,062, of 
whom 80,142, including Indians and Chinese, were colored. In population it 
ranks third among the States, third in agricultural products, and fifth in the 
value of its manufactures. 

The central part of Ohio is a table land about 1000 feet above the sea 
3evel. On its water-shed, between Lake Erie and the Ohio River, in the 
morthern part of the State, the land rises to an altitude of thirteen and four- 
teen hundred feet. In the south central part of the State is a range of bold 
hills, near the Ohio River. There is some prairie land in the State. In the 
north-west is a large tract of very fertile soil called the " Black Swamp," 
which was heavily timbered. The Ohio River flows along its border a dis- 
tance of 436 miles in a navigable stream. 

Ohio was formerly a part of the vast region claimed by France, lying 
between the Alleghany and the Rocky Mountains, that bore the general 
name of Louisiana. The region was first visited by whit-? men in 1673, 
•when Father Marquette, a French missionary, accompanied by M. Joliet, of 
Quebec, with five boatmen, set out from Mackinaw to penetrate the unex- 
plored region south of that station of the Jesuit missions in the wilderness. 
They had heard of the' Mississippi River and sought it. In two canoes they 
reached the Wisconsin River by way of Green Bay and the Fox River. They 
Jfloated down the Wisconsin to the Mississippi, and went down that mighty 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 



367 



stream to the mouth of the Arkansas River, whence they returned to tell of 
their great discoveries. In this exploration they entered the mouth of the 
Ohio River, and learned something of its vast length and the region it passed 
through. 

Marquette's account caused other explorations in the region of the Mis- 
sissippi to be. undertaken. Robert Cavalier La Salle, a Jesuit priest in his 
earlier years, was an ardent adventurer at Montreal, in Canada, at the middle 
of the 17th century. He engaged in trade with the Indians along the St. 
Lawrence and the shores of Lake Ontario, Inspired by Marquette's adven- 




EDWARD TIFFIN, FIRST GOVERNOR OF OHIO. 

tures, he conceived a grand scheme of exploration and traffic westward, with 
a few companions. He was authorized to build forts, and was given the 
monopoly of the trade in buffalo skins for five years. He first established a 
trading-post at the mouth of the Niagara River. In the summer of 1679 he 
built a vessel near the site of the city of Buffalo, and, with other adventurers 
and servants, went in her through the chain of great lakes to Green Bay, in 
the north-western part of Lake Michigan, whence he sent the vessel back„ 
laden with furs, and made the rest of their voyages in canoes. 

La Salle and his companions penetrated to the Mississippi River, voyaged 
to its mouth, and there, on the shore of the Gulf of Mexico, they erected a 
cross, placed on it the arms of France, and proclaimed the whole Valley of 



368 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 

the Mississippi and the region of its tributaries a part of the dominion of 
France. La Salle called the whole vast domain Louisiana, in honor of his 
King, Louis XIV. of France. 

The charters granted to English adventurers on the Atlantic coasts 
covered the domain westward between the Alleghany Mountains and the 
Pacific Ocean. This produced conflicting claims of the French and English. 
The former claimed the whole region north-west of the Ohio River, as a part 
of Louisiana. The French erected forts on the Mississippi, the Illinois and 
the Miami, or Maumee, rivers, and on the lakes. 

In 1748 the "Ohio Land Company," of English-speaking people, was 
chartered, chiefly to counteract and check the encroachments of the French. 
The latter at once began the erection of a chain of forts in the rear of the 
English settlements that were forming. This brought on the conflict known 
as the French and Indian War. Previous to the breaking out of that conflict, 
the English had built (1749) a fortified trading-post on the Miami River, at 
the mouth of Laramie Creek in (present) Shelby county, Ohio. This creek 
was so called in compliment to Laramie, an enterprising French trader, who 
erected a trading station there a few years before. He was a bitter foe of 
the English, and incited the barbarians against them. The settlement at this 
post was named " Pickawillany," and was the first settlement by Britons within 
the present domain of the State of Ohio. It was destroyed by some French- 
men and Indians within a year or so after it was established. 

At about the same time Celeron, an accomplished French commander, 
with a few regular soldiers, some Canadians and Indians, was sent to take 
possession of the whole Ohio country for the French King. He was provided 
with leaden tablets, properly inscribed, to bury at different places as evidence 
of pre-occupation. The expedition left Montreal at the middle of June, 
1749, crossed Lake Ontario, and, making a portage at Niagara Falls, coasted 
along the south shore of Lake Erie, and made an overland journey to the 
waters of the Alleghany River. They went down the Ohio in canoes to the 
mouth of the Great Miami, below Cincinnati, proclaiming French sovereignty 
and burying six leaden plates. Thence they made an overland journey to 
Lake Erie. 

In these efforts to secure territorial dominion no heed was given to the 
more rightful claim of the natives to the soil. A Delaware chief said : 

" The French claim all the land on one side of the river, and the English 
claim all the land on the other side of the river. Where is the Indians' land ? " 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 369 

After the Revolution disputes arose between several States as to their 
respective rights to lands north-west of the Ohio. These disputes were set- 
tied by the cession of the territory to the United States by the respective 
States, Virginia reserving 3,709,848 acres near the rapids of the Ohio, and 
Connecticut reserving a tract of 3,666,921 acres near Lake Erie, known as 
the " Western Reserve." The fine city of Cleveland is within the domain of 
the "Western Reserve." That tract was ceded to the United States in 1801. 

These ceded lands were erected into a Territory in 1787. The National 
Congress was in session, while the Convention that framed the Constitution 
of the United States was in session at Philadelphia. The former had assem- 
bled at New York. In July a committee, of which Nathan Dane of Massa- 
chusetts was chairman, reported "An ordinance for the government of the 
territory of the United States north-west of the Ohio." This territory was 
limited to the ceded lands in that region. 

The report, embodied in a bill, contained a special proviso, which struck 
a fatal blow at the unjust British law of primogeniture. It provided that the 
■estates of all persons dying within the territory should be equally divided 
among all the children or next of kin in equal degree. It also provided and 
declared that " there shall be neither slavery or involuntary servitude in the 
said territory otherwise than in the punishment of crimes, whereof the party 
shall have been duly convicted." 

This ordinance was adopted after adding a clause relative to the reclama- 
tion of " fugitives from labor " — in other words, slaves — similar to that which 
was incorporated into the National Constitution a few weeks afterwards. 
This making the region a free-labor territory, and the fact that Indian titles 
to seventeen million acres of land in that country had lately been extin- 
guished by treaty with several tribes of barbarians, caused a sudden and great 
influx of settlers into the country along the northern banks of the Ohio. 
The " North-western Territory " so established included the present States 
of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin. It is estimated that 
within a year after the passage of that ordinance and the organization of the 
Territory fully 20,000 men, women and children passed down the Ohio River 
to become settlers upon its banks. 

The first permanent settlement in Ohio was made in 1788. General 
Rufus Putnam, of the Continental army, and General Benjamin Tupper 
formed a plan for a company of soldiers of the Revolution to undertake the 
task of founding a settlement on the Ohio River. Delegates from several 



370 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

counties in Massachusetts responded to a call to consider the matter. They 
formed the " Ohio Com^ ny," composed of men like Generals Putnam, 
Varnum, Tupper, Parsons, Meigs and others whom Americans delight to 
honor. They purchased a large tract of land from the Government, and in 
the spring of 1787 General Putnam and a company of forty-eight men, 
women and children seated themselves near the confluence of the Muskingum 
and Ohio rivers athwart the great war-path of the five north-western tribes 
when they made their bloody incursions to the frontiers of Virginia and 
Pennsylvania. A fort was then in course of erection there, which was named 
Fort Harmer. 

They named the settlement Marietta, in honor of Marie Antoinette, 
Queen of King Louis XVL of France. This was the seed from which the 
great State of Ohio sprang. It was composed of the choice materials of New 
England society. At one time — in the year 1789 — there were no less than 
ten of the settlers there who had received a college education 

In the same year when Marietta was founded, John Cleves Symmes, who 
had been Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey, and a member 
of the Continental Congress, in behalf of himself and associates, contracted 
with the Board of Treasury for the purchase of a large tract of land on the 
north side of the Ohio River, between the Great and Little Miami Rivers; 
and in November, 1788, the first settlers on that tract seated themselves near 
the mouth of the Little Miami, five miles above the site of Cincinnati, where 
Fort Washington was built soon afterwards. These settlements were an- 
noyed by the Indians (who were incited by the British, who were yet occupy- 
ing the fort at Detroit) until after the victories of Wayne, in 1794, and the 
treaty at Greenville the next year. 

General Arthur St. Clair was appointed Governor of the Territory,. 
Winthrop Sergeant Secretary, and Samuel Holden Parsons, James M. 
Varnum and John Cleves Symmes, Judges. The Territory of Ohio had 
been erected soon after the settlement at Marietta, but there was no fixed 
seat of government for some time. In 1795 the Governor and Judges, who 
constituted the Supreme Court of the Territory, undertook to revise the laws 
and to establish a system of statutory jurisprudence by adaptations from the 
laws of the original States. For this purpose they met at Cincinnati. A 
General Court was fixed there and at Marietta. Laws were passed whenever 
needed, and were promulgated at any place where the Territorial Legislature 
after the organization of that body happened to be assembled. 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 371 

The first meeting of the Territorial Legislature was organized on Sep- 
tember 24, 1799, when they were addressed by Governor St. Clair. The 
Territory was then entitled to a change in the form of its Government, under 
the provisions of the ordinance of 1787, which provided that when there were 
five thousand free males of full age in the Territory, the people should be 
authorized to send a representative to a Territorial Legislature. The laws 
enacted by the Governor and Judges, the validity of which had been ques- 
tioned, were ratified. William Henry Harrison, afterwards President of the 
United States (who was a son-in-law of Judge Symmes), and was then 
Secretary of the Territory, was elected a delegate to Congress. A short time 
after the adjournment of this session of the Legislature, Connecticut ceded 
the Western Reserve to the United States. 

On the first of November, 1802, a Territorial Convention assembled at 
Chillicothe and framed a State Constitution, which was ratified on the 29th. 
It was never referred to the people for consideration, but became the funda- 
mental law of the land by the act of the Convention. By this act Ohio 
became one of the States of the Republic, on equality with the others. 
Edward Tif^n was made the first Governor of Ohio, in 1803, and served until 
1807. 

The first General Assembly under the State Constitution met at Chilli- 
cothe, on the Scioto River, on April i, 1803. That place remained the seat 
of government until 1810, when it was removed to Zanesville. In 1816 
Columbus became the capital of the State and so remains. 

During the second war for independence Ohio was the theatre of many 
stirring military events, the most prominent of which were the seige of Fort 
Meigs and the defense of Fort Stephenson at Sandusky, now Fremont. The 
famous naval battle on Lake Erie, in which Perry gained a decisive victory, 
was fought in sight of the shores of Ohio. Her citizens were participants in 
about all the struggles in the north-west at that time. 

Some of the southern counties of Ohio suffered from the raids of 
guerillas during the Civil War. Her sons volunteered to assist in the salva- 
tion of the Republic with great alacrity. That Commonwealth furnished to 
the National army during the war 317,133 soldiers. 

At the kindling of the Civil War, Ohio had a population of 2,300,000. It 
had been settled chiefly by New England people, and public sentiment was 
decidedly in favor of the freedom of the slaves. Its Governor (Dennison) 
was an avowed anti-slavery man. In his message to the Legislature, in 



372 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 

January, 1861, he explained his refusal to surrender fugitive slaves from 
Kentucky and Tennessee; denied the right of Secession; affirmed the loyalty 
of his State ; suggested the repeal of the Fugitive Slave law, as the most 
effectual way of effecting the repeal of the Personal Liberty acts, and called 
for the repeal of the laws of the Southern States which interfered with the 
rights of the citizens of the free-labor States. The Legislature was in accord 
with the Governor, and pledged " the entire power and resources of the State 
for a strict maintenance of the Constitution and laws of the General Govern- 
ment, by whomsoever administered." These promises and pledges were ful- 
filled to the utmost. 

Ohio is famous alike for its agricultural and manufactured products. 
Besides its immense cereal crops, it raises a vast number of cattle, sheep, and 
swine. In 1880 it had 1,860,000 cattle, 492,400 sheep, and 3,142, 000 swine. 
There were 20,699 manufactories in the State in 1880, employing about $189, 
000,000 invested capital, and yielding an annual product of the value of 
$348,298,390. 

The assessed valuation of the property of the State, real and personal, 
was $1,525,445,000. It had, in 1882, within its boundaries, 6664 miles of rail- 
roads in operation, which cost, with equipments, $610,728,103. The Com- 
monwealth ranks second in railroad mileage. 

Ohio makes ample provision for the education of its children. In 1880 
there were enrolled in its public schools 752,442 children, and an average 
daily attendance of 495,000. The State expended that year for public 
instruction $7,707,630. Normal schools, academies and seminaries abound, 
and in nearly all the larger cities there are commercial colleges. There were 
thirty-five universities and colleges in the State, with 5,694 pupils. 

Ohio is an Indian word signifying " Beautiful River." It is nicknamed 
" The Buckeye State," so called from the buckeye tree, which bears a nut 
resembling the horse-chestnut. 




(1699.) 

Louisiana is one of the "Gulf States," lying wholly 
in the Mississippi Valley, between latitude 28° 56' and 
33° north, and longitude 89°and 94° west. It embraces 
an area of 48,728 square miles, and in 1880 the number 
of its inhabitants was 939,946. Of these 484,992 (a 
trifle more than one-half) were colored, including 848 
Indians and 489 Chinese. 

The entire surface of Louisiana is flat, the summits of its highest land 
not exceeding 250 feet above the Gulf in altitude. The southern portion, 
including the Mississippi delta, and embracing nearly 8,500 square miles, 
-presents very extensive marshes, and its coast is deeply indented by estuaries, 
(bays and sounds. The southern portion is always subject to overflow when 
the rivers are full. The country is slightly rolling in the northern part, ex- 
cepting in the north-west, where there are extensive marshes in the region 
of the Red River and its tributaries. The alluvial portions of the delta are 
very fertile. 

The State of Louisiana is bounded on the north and east by Arkansas 
and Mississippi. On its western border is Texas, and its southern and south- 
eastern shores are washed by the Gulf of Mexico and its swamps and bays. 
Its estuaries are called bayous, some of the larger ones being mouths or out- 
lets of the great river. 

The soil of Louisiana was first trodden by Europeans when, in 1541, De 
Soto and his followers, proceeding westward from Florida in search of gold, 
came to the Mississippi, crossed it, and penetrated to the outlying eastern 
spurs of the Rocky Mountans. In 1673, Father Marquette, a Jesuit mission- 
ary and explorer, came down the Mississippi from the region of the Great 
Lakes, and discovered the upper portion of the present State of Louisiana, 
:but did not plant the seeds of a colony. (See Ohio.) 

Late in December, 168 1, Robert Cavelier de la Salle, an energetic French 



374 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 



adventurer, after coasting along the southern shores of Lake Michigan in 
canoes, with other adventurers and servants, entered the Chicago River, 
crossed by portage to the IlHnois River, descended to the Mississippi, and 
went down that great stream to its entrance into the Gulf of Mexico. He 
named the mighty stream " Riviere Colbert," in compliment to the great 
minister of Louis XIV., who had encouraged his schemes in America, and 
was really his patron. 

Henri di Tonti, an active Italian, was La Salle's lieutenant in this expe- 
dition. After the three debouching channels of the Mississippi had been 
explored, the whole company assembled at an elevated sand dune near the 




WILLIAM C. C. CLAIBORNE, FIRST GOVERNOR OF LOUISIANA, 



Gulf, and there erected a cross, upon which they afifixed the arms of France 
and this inscription : 

" Louis the Great, King of France and Navarre, April 9, 1682." 
Then a leaden plate, with a Latin inscription affirming the discovery, 
was buried near, when La Salle, with uplifted sword, proclaimed the whole 
Valley of the Mississippi, and the region of its tributary waters, a part of the 
French dominions. He named the vast region Louisiana, in honor of his 
sovereign, Louis XVI. The imposing ceremony of taking possession of the 
newly discovered country was concluded by the signing of 3. proces verbal, or 
ofificial report of the affair, by the leader and his companions, in the following- 
order : 

La Mat^rie (notary), De la Salle, P. Zenobe (Recollet missionary), Henri. 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 375 

•di Tonti, Fran9ois de Bous-voudet, Jean Bourdon, Sieur d'Autray, Jacques 
Cauclois, Pierre You, Giles Meneret, Jean Michel (surgeon), Jean Mas, Jean 
Duglignon, Nicholas de la Salle. 

So was planted the first germ of French empire in that region, which 
sprang up and flourished in the i8th century. 

The next year La Salle returned to Quebec, leaving Di Tonti in com- 
mand in the western wilderness, with directions to meet him at the mouth of 
the Mississippi the following year. He went to France, laid before the 
Court a proposition for the settlement of Louisiana, and the conquest from 
the Spaniards of the rich mining country in northern Mexico, of which he 
had heard. He received authority for such adventures, and he was made 
commandant of the vast territory from the present State of lUinois to 
Mexico, and westward indefinitely. 

On August I, 1684, La Salle sailed from France with 280 persons of in- 
different character, in four ships. They touched at Santa Domingo, entered 
the Gulf of Mexico, and, in consequence of a miscalculation of the incom- 
petent navigator, they passed the mouths of the Mississippi without knowing 
it. They finally landed in Matagorda Bay, where their storeship was 
wrecked. The navigator, pleading a lack of provisions, deserted La Salle, 
leaving him only one small vessel. There La Salle determined to plant his 
colony, but the natives were hostile. Murder and sickness reduced the party 
to forty at the end of a year. La Salle set out for the Illinois country in 
1688, and was murdered. The rest of the emigrants were massacred or made 
prisoners by Spaniards sent from Mexico to drive out the French. 

In 1698 Pierre Le Moyne Iberville, a native of Montreal, was sent from 
France with two vessels and a number of men, women and children, to 
occupy the region at the mouth of the Mississippi river. There he received 
from the Indians a letter left by Di Tonti in 1686 for La Salle. He built a 
fort which he named Biloxi, garrisoned it, seated his colony (1699), made his 
brother, Bienville, Lieutenant-governor, and returned to France. He came 
back afterwards twice. At his last visit he found the colony reduced by 
sickness, and transferred it to Mobile, and so began the colonization of 
Alabama. 

The French Government, desirous of promoting settlement in the region 
discovered by La Salle, officially gave it the name of Louisiana, and in 1712 
granted the whole province, with a monopoly of trade, to Anthony Crozat, a 
wealthy French merchant, who expected large profits from mines and trade 



376 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

with Mexico. He was bound to send goods and emigrants to Louisiana 
every year, and was allowed $io,cxx) annually from the French public treasury 
for civil and military establishments. Crozat established trading-houses at 
several points ; but finding small returns for great outlays, he abandoned the 
enterprise in 1717. 

Governor Bienville having resumed control of the country, prepared to 
found a town on the Lower Mississippi. He sent a party of convicts fron:\ 
Fort Biloxi to clear up a swamp on the site of New Orleans, in 171 8. When. 
Charleroix visited it in 1722, the germ of the future city consisted of a large 
wooden warehouse, a shed for a church, two or three very ordinary houses, a 
quantity of huts, and 200 inhabitants. Bienville, believing that it would " at 
no distant day become an opulent city, the metropoHs of a great and rich 
colony," removed the seat of government to this spot in 1723. 

Other speculators succeeded Crozat in Louisiana. John Law, a Scotch 
financial adventurer, had established a bank at Paris, by royal authority, that 
had a financial association with the Government. It was the immediate cause 
of the elevation of the Government credit and of general prosperity. Law 
was hailed as a public benefactor. He soon promulgated a scheme of colo- 
nization and trade for the purpose of drawing great profits from the French 
possessions in America. An association was formed called " the West India 
Company," with a capital of ioo,0(X),ooo livres. It was invested with a mon- 
opoly of trade with Canada and sovereign rights over the territory of 
Louisiana, which was to be colonized on a vast scale. 

In 1719 a royal edict conferred upon the association a monoply of the 
East Indian and African trade, which now absorbed the French East India 
Company and took the name of "The Company of the Indies." Its capital 
was augmented, and it undertook to pay the French national debt by loaning 
money to the King at three per cent. 

The Company undertook to send 6(X) white settlers and half as many 
negroes to Louisiana, but failed to carry out the scheme. Law finally in- 
duced i,SOO German emigrants to settle on a tract twelve miles square on 
the Arkansas River. Not long after their arrival, the great bubble of specu- 
lation burst (1720), causing the ruin of thousands who had invested money in 
the enterprise. The Germans in Louisiana went down to the inchoate city 
planted by Bienville, which was named New Orleans, received allotments of 
land on each side of the Mississippi, and settled there on cottage farms, rais- 
ing vegetables for the supply of the growing town and the soldiers. 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 377 

" The Company of the Indies " remained in existence for ten years after 
the crash in 1720, when it surrendered its grant to the Crown, by whom the 
colony was managed until 1762, when the whole province was secretly ceded 
to Spain by France. Louisiana passed into the possession of Spain late in 
1764. It was restored to France by a secret treaty in the year 1800. 

This retrocession to France was effected by Napoleon Bonaparte, who, 
when he became First Consul, or supreme ruler of France, ardently desired 
to re-establish the colonial empire of his country. At this juncture a combi- 
nation of circumstances led to the purchase of the vast domain of Louisiana 
by the United States of America. 

The settlers of the country west of the Alleghany Mountains had been 
much disturbed, for some time, by apprehensions that the Spanish possession 
of Louisiana might restrict the free navigation of the Mississippi River, and 
so obstruct their commerce with the outside world, which the people of the 
future commonwealths of the Great Valley might desire to enjoy. Their 
apprehension was justified by the violation of a treaty made with Spain by 
the Governor of Louisana, who, in 1795, closed the port of New Orleans 
against the commerce of the Republic. 

This act produced intense excitement, in the Western country espec- 
ially. There was a proposition before Congress for forcibly taking possession 
of the Louisiana region, when it was rumored that by a secret treaty Spain 
had retroceded that domain to France. President Jefferson, ever alive to the 
interests, independence and power of his country, wrote an able letter to 
Robert R. Livingston, then the American minister at the Court of the First 
Consul, instructing him to represent to Bonaparte that the occupation of 
New Orleans by France would endanger the friendly relations between the 
two nations, and perhaps even compel the United States to make common 
cause with Great Britain. Livingston was instructed to insist upon the free 
navigation of the Mississippi, and to open negotiations, if possible, for the 
acquisition of New Orleans and surrounding territory by the United States. 

Bonaparte, who had failed in his efforts to reduce Santa Domingo to 
submission, saw that the tenure by which he held Louisiana was feeble, and 
he promptly determined that what he could not defend he had better dispose 
of. He summoned two of his ministers on April 10, 1803, to whom he said 
that the English, having despoiled France of all her northern possessions in 
America, would now covet those in the South. He spoke of the strong 
British naval force then in the Gulf of Mexico, said affairs with Santa 



378 THE GREAT REP.UBLIC OF THE WEST: 

Domingo were daily getting worse, and that the English might easily conquer 
Louisiana. 

" I am not sure," said Bonaparte, " that they have not already begun an 
attack upon it. Such a measure would be in accordance with their habits, 
and in their place I should not wait. I am inclined, in order to deprive them 
of all prospect of ever possessing it, to cede it to the United States. Indeed 
I can hardly say that I cede it, for I do not yet possess it ; and if I wait but 
a short time, my enemies may leave me nothing but an empty title to grant 
to the Republic I wish to conciliate. They only ask for the city of New 
Orleans, but I consider the whole colony as lost ; and I believe that, in the 
hands of this rising power, it will be more useful to the political, and even the 
commercial interests of France, than if I should attempt to retain it." 

Bonaparte asked the opinion of the two ministers. They did not agree. 
The next day he sent for Marbois (one of them), who approved of the pro- 
posed cession, and said : 

" The season for deliberation is over. I have determined to renounce 
Louisiana." 

The negotiations began on that day by Mr. Livingston and Mr. Monroe 
with representatives of the First Consul. The treaty was signed on April 30, 
1803. The vast domain of Louisiana was ceded to the United States for the 
sum of $15,000,000, and it was agreed that the vessels and merchandise of 
France and Spain should be admitted into all its ports free of duty for 
twelve years. 

" By this cession of territory," said Napoleon to Mr. Livingston, " I have 
secured the power of the United States, and given to England a maritime 
rival who, at some future time, will humble her pride." 

The American flag was first raised in Louisiana in December, 1803. The 
next year the territory was divided into two governments, namely — the 
"Territory of Orleans," and the "District of Louisiana." In February, 1811, 
Congress authorized the inhabitants of the former Territory to meet in con- 
vention and frame a State Constitution. It was done, and on April 8, 
18 1 2, the Territory was admitted into the Union as the State of Louisiana. 
William C. C. Clairborne was elected its first Governor in 1812, and served 
until 1816. 

On April 14, 18 12, Congress, by act, took possession of a region east of 
the Mississippi which it had acquired the year before, and which now forms 
a part of the Commonwealth of Louisiana, and added it to the new State. 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 379 

By another act, on June 4, the "District of Louisiana" had its title altered 
to " District of Missouri." 

In the war of 1 812-15 Louisiana bore a pretty heavy share of the burden. 
On its soil was fought the last great battle of that war. The State was 
invaded by a powerful British land and naval force in the last month of 18 14. 
The enemy appeared in the Gulf of Mexico with fifty vessels of war of all 
sizes, and first came in sight of the coast a little east of Lake Borgne. 
Believing their expedition to be unknown to the people of Louisiana, they 
came in buoyant spirits. But they had been seen by a buccaneer of the Gulf, 
who revealed their approach to the Americans. New Orleans was thrown 
into a panic. General Jackson, who was at Mobile, was sent for in great 
haste. He came, proclaimed martial law, and prepared for the defense of 
the city. 

The British scattered a flotilla of American gunboats on Lake Borgne, 
and landed several thousand troops some miles below New Orleans, where 
Jackson boldly attacked them on the night of December 23. Reinforced, the 
British pressed forward, and on January 8, 18 15, a very severe battle was 
fought on the plains of Chalmette, four or five miles below the city, by troops 
led by General Pakenham, one of Wellington's veterans, and Americans 
largely composed of volunteers from Kentucky and Tennessee under Gen- 
eral Jackson, who had hastily cast up a line of entrenchments. The British 
were repulsed and driven to their ships, and New Orleans and the State of 
Louisiana were saved. 

New Constitutions for the State of Louisiana were framed in 1845 ^^d 
1852. The people of the State were disposed to regard the Secession move- 
ments with disfavor, but the leading politicians favored them, and soon had 
control of public affairs. Soon after the election of Mr. Lincoln, the Gov- 
ernor called a special session of the Legislature at Baton Rouge, on Decem- 
ber 10, i860. In that body the Union sentiment was powerful, yet not 
sufficiently so to arrest the mischief that menaced the Commonwealth with 
disaster. An effort was made to submit the question of '* Convention " or 
" No Convention " to the people, but failed, and an election of delegates to a 
Convention to be held on January 8, was ordered. At that election the popu- 
lar vote was small, but it was of such a complexion that the Secessionists 
were hopeful. 

The Convention met at Baton Rouge on January 23, 1861. The Legis- 
lature had convened there on the 21st. The number of the delegates in the 



38o THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

Convention was 130. Governor A. Mouton was chosen President. Commis- 
sioners from South Carolina and Alabama were there, and were invited to 
seats in that body. They accepted, and made violent speeches in favor of 
Secession. A committee of fifteen was appointed to draft an ordinance of 
Secession. It was reported on the 24th and was adopted on the 26th by a 
vote of 113 against 17. 

Though Louisiana had been purchased by the United States less than 
sixty years before, that Convention declared that the State " reserved the 
rights and powers heretofore delegated to the Government of the United 
state of America," its creator. The President of the Convention, at the con- 
clusion of the ballotting, said: " In virtue of the vote just announced, I now 
declare the connection between the State of Louisiana and the Federal 
Union dissolved, and she is a free, sovereign and independent power." 

No State in the Union was more dependent on that Union for its perma- 
nent growth in population and wealth than Louisiana. The device on its 
seal was a pelican brooding over its young, emblematical of the fostering 
care of the National Government. The Convention, by a decided majority, 
refused to submit the ordinance of Secession to the people for consideration^ 
The State authorities proceeded to seize the property of the National Gov- 
ernment within the borders of Louisiana. 

In the war that ensued Louisiana became the theatre of very stirring 
events. In the spring of 1862 a military and naval armament, commanded 
respectively by General B. F. Butler and Commodore Farragut, ascended 
the Mississippi from the Gulf, and took possession of New Orleans and of a 
portion of the State. The demand for troops made upon the State by the 
Confederate Government was responded to with alacrity, but the control of 
the navigation of the great river by the National Government kept the whole 
State in subjection. 

In December, 1862, the first election for Union civil officers was held. 
An election for State officers was held in 1864, when Michael Hahn was 
chosen Governor, and invested with the powers of military Governor. On 
the ratification of the Thirteenth amendment to the National Constitution, 
Louisiana was regarded as a re-organized State, and it soon resumed its place 
in the Union. 

The two most valuable agricultural resources of Louisiana are cotton 
and sugar. In 1880 the value of the cotton productions was $20,000,000. It 
produced in that year about 175,000 hogsheads of sugar and 1 2,000,000 gal- 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 



381 



Ions of molasses. It is not largely engaged in manufactures. New Orleans 
had, in 1880, over 900 manufacturing establishments, which produced articles 
valued at $19,000,000. The assessed valuation of taxable property in the 
State was $160,162,459. It contained 123 1 miles of railways in operation, 
which cost about $45,000,000. 

The number of children of school age in the State in 1880 was 273, 845, of 
whom only 64,440 were enrolled in the public schools. Of this number 
about one half were colored. The whole amount expended for public schools 
that year was $455,758. There were over 300 private schools and eight 
colleges. 

New Orleans is the commercial metropolis of the State. It contained 
216,000 in 1880. Baton Rouge, its political capital, contained 7,200 inhabi- 
tants. 

Louisiana is called " The Creole State." 





W^3 

(1730.) 




•Indiana is one of the most flourishing of the Central 
States of the Union, and in 1880 ranked sixth among the 
States in population, and sixth in the value of its agri- 
cultural productions. Its population then was 1,978,301, 
of whom 39,503 were colored, including 246 Indians and 
a few Chinese. It lies between latitude 37° 46' and 41° 
46' north, and 84° 49' and 88° 2' west, and embraces an area of 36,350 square 
miles. The State of Michigan and the southern end of Lake Michigan form 
its northern border. On the east is Ohio, on the west Illinois, and on the 
south-east and south is Kentucky, from which it is separated by the Ohio 
River. 

The topography of Indiana is peculiar. There are no mountains in the 
State, and no hills of considerable height excepting those known as " river 
hills." These have been formed by the erosion of rivers which drain the 
State, that have, in the course of ages, furrowed valleys of considerable 
depth and much broader than their present channels. The sloping bounds of 
these valleys are given the appearance of hills varying from two hundred to 
four or five hundred feet above the valleys. Some of the river hills along 
the Wabash Valley reach an altitude of 600 feet. These river hills are broken 
and rugged. There is a large area of prairie land in the State. 

Indiana was first trodden by Europeans in the persons of French mis- 
sionaries and traders. They established Christian missionary stations on the 
shores of the great Lakes, from the eastern end of Lake Ontario to Lake 
Superior. They carried the Cross and the lilies of France far into the wilder- 
ness south of the Lakes and down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico (see 
Louisiana), making thousands of converts, and friends of the dusky barba- 
rians. They planted seeds of civilization here and there ; and the discoveries 
of their priests and traders gave to France a claim to a magnificent domain 
of millions of square miles in extent. This was accomplished before the close 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. ^83 

of the 17th century. Indiana formed a part of this domain, and the French 
had missionary stations and trading posts within its borders so early as the 
year 1700. 

The first and most considerable of these religious and commercial sta- 
tions in Indiana was planted in Vincennes, on the Wabash, in present Knox 
county. There a small colony of Canadians were seated in 1702. It is 
believed that the first white settlers there were French soldiers, who, by in- 
termarriages with the Indians, lost many of their civilized habits. But little 
is known of the country until the English seized the French domains in 
America, and became permanent owners by the treaty of 1763. 

During the old war for independence the French settlers in that region 




JONATHAN JENNINGS, FIRST GOVERNOR OF INDIANA, 

were bitterly hostile to the English. The latter built a strong fort at Vin- 
cennes, where some stirring events occurred in the year 1779. The year 
before, Major George Rogers Clarke, a Virginian, who first appeared in Ken- 
tucky in 1772 as a land surveyor, led an expedition against the British frontier 
posts north of the Ohio. He captured that at Vincennes in August, and left 
a small garrison there. 

Clarke was trying to make peace with the Indian tribes in the north- 
west, who were continually incited to war with the settlers by the British, 
and he hoped to accomplish much by the possession of the strong post of 
Vincennes. In January, 1779, British troops from Detroit retook Vincennes. 
Clarke, at a post in Illinois, started immediately with 175 men to recover it. 
They penetrated the dark wilderness, and for an entire week they traversed 



384 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

the " drowned lands," suffering every privation from v/et, cold and hunger. 
They sometimes waded the cold snow-flood arm-pit deep in the forest, and 
arrived in sight of Vincennes on the morning of February i8. 

The troops blackened their faces with gunpowder, to make themselves 
appear hideous, crossed the river in a boat, and pushed toward the little 
town. The garrison and the people were astounded at this apparition. It 
seemed as if the intruders must have dropped from the clouds. The garrison 
surrendered without opposition, and before noon the American flag was seen 
waving over the fort. 

Indiana formed a part of the north-western territory. (See Ohio>) Soon 
after the settlements were made in Ohio, several military expeditions were 
sent into that region. In 1790 General Harrison destroyed the Indian towns 
near the site of the (present) city of Fort Wayne; and in May, 1791, Gen- 
eral Charles Scott led a force from Kentucky, which laid waste Indian 
villages on the Wabash and Eel rivers. The treaty at Greenville, in 1795, 
completed the pacification of the Indians on the north-west, and the settlers 
from the East began to seat themselves in Indiana. 

In the year 1800, the "Western Reserve" (see OJiid) in north-eastern 
Ohio having been sold to a company of speculators, measures were taken to 
extinguish certain claims on the part of the United States and the State of 
Connecticut. Fully looo settlers were already on the " Reserve." Congress 
passed an Act (April 28, 1800) authorizing the issue of letters-patent convey- 
ing the title of these lands to the Governor of Connecticut for the benefit of 
those claiming under him, and similar letters-patent were issued by Connec- 
ticut, relinquishing all jurisdiction. The "Reserve" was annexed to the 
North-west Territory, which was presently divided by Act of Congress (May 
7) into two separate jurisdictions, the western one being called " the Terri- 
tory of Indiana," after one of the old Revolutionary Land Companies. 

On July 4, 1800, the Territorial Government of Indiana was organized at 
Vincennes (which was made its capital), with William Henry Harrison as 
Governor. It then included Michigan and Illinois. The former was set off 
in 1805, and the latter in 1809, when Indiana was reduced to its present 
dimensions. At that time its population was about 24,000. 

In 1803 a movement was made in Congress, at the instance of the settlers 
in Indiana, for suspending for a limited term, in the case of that Territory, 
the provisions of the ordinance of 1787 (see 0/no), prohibiting slavery north- 
west of the Ohio River. A committee, of which John Randolph, of Vir- 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 385 

ginia, v/as chairman, reported strongly against the propositions. They ex- 
pressed a belief that in " the salutary operation of this salutary and sagacious 
restraint [of the ordinance] the inhabitants of Indiana would, at no distant day, 
find ample remuneration for a temporary privation of labor and immigration." 

The subject was brought up the next year and referred to a new 
committee, who reported in favor of such suspension, so as to admit, for ten 
years, the introduction of slaves born within the territory of the United 
States, their descendants to be free, males at the age of twenty-five years, 
and females at twenty-one years. No action was had, and Indiana was 
spared the infliction. Other unsuccessful efforts were made to introduce the 
slave-labor system. 

In the spring of 1810, Tecumtha, a crafty, intrepid, unscrupulous and 
cruel Shawnoe chief, attempted to form a confederacy of all Indian tribes of 
the north-west in war against the people of the United States. His brother, 
" the Prophet," was his wily accomplice. During the ensuing summer the 
frontier settlers became so alarmed by the frequent religious and military ex- 
ercises of the barbarians, that General Harrison, Governor of the Indiana 
Territory, invited the brothers to a council at Vincennes. Tecumtha ap- 
peared on August 12, leaving a body of his warriors in camp in a grove near 
by. Accompanied by thirty of his followers, Tecumtha approached. He 
was invited to come under the broad porch of the Governor's residence, but 
refused, saying: 

"Houses were built for you to hold councils in; Indians hold them in 
the open air." 

He then took a position under some trees in front of the house, and 
addressed the large concourse of people with great force and eloquence. 
When one of the Governor's aides offered him a chair, saying, " Your father 
requests you to take a seat by his side," the haughty chief drew his mantle 
around him, and standing erect, said, with scornful tones: "My father! 
The Sun is my father, and the Earth is my mother on her bosom I will 
repose! " and then seated himself upon the ground. 

Tecumtha's speeches at the council were bold, arrogant, and sometimes 
insolent. He avowed the purpose of his brother and himself to establish a 
confederacy of the tribes, and his general bearing was one of hostility. The 
people were alarmed. No one slept tha. night. In the morning Tecumtha 
apologized for some of his words of anger, and he and Harrison, equal in 
courage, ended the council in an apparently friendly manner. 



^86 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

The next spring (1811) the Indians, encouraged by the teachings of the 
Prophet, began to roam over the country in small marauding parties, plunder- 
ing the settlers of horses, cattle and other property, and creating universal 
alarm. This annoyance continued all summer, and, growing worse. General 
Harrison resolved to put an end to these depredations. 

Early in the fall the Governor obtained from the General Government an 
increase of military strength. Near the present town of Terre Haute he 
built a stockaded fort. He mobilized the militia of the Territory, and he 
decided that measures must be taken at once to measure strength with the 
Prophet, who was evidently preparing for war. With about 1000 men, 
regulars and militia, the Governor moved in the direction of the Prophet's 
town. To him the Governor sent friendly chiefs on a mission, who were 
treated with scorn. 

The troops now pressed forwards, and on November 6, 181 1, they en- 
camped near Tippecanoe creek, within three miles of the Prophet's seat. 
These movements had been watched by vigilant barbarian scouts. The camp 
was arranged so as to meet a sudden attack at any point, with wagons and 
baggage in the centre. Early in the evening the wearied soldiers were 
soundly slumbering, excepting many vigilant sentinels. 

In the camp of the Prophet none slumbered. After midnight his war- 
riors crept stealthily through the prairie grass undiscovered, and with horrid 
yells fell upon Harrison's camp, which was soon in arms and their fires 
extinguished. It was half a surprise. A desperate fight ensued. Nineteen- 
twentieths of the militia had never seen a battle. The struggle lasted until 
daylight, when the barbarians were dispersed by the mounted men of the 
Governor's force, leaving forty of their number dead on the field. The 
horsemen rode to the Prophet's town and found it deserted. It was laid in 
ashes, and then the little army, with its wounded, fell back to Vincennes. 
Sixty of its number had been killed, and twice as many wounded. Then he 
devastated the Indian country around. This little campaign effectually 
checked the alarmed invaders ; inspired them with wholesome respect for the 
power of the frontier settlers; secured peace for a while, and gave Governor 
Harrison a decided military reputation. When, in 1840, he was a candidate 
for the Presidency of the United States, with John Tyler, of Virginia, for 
Vice-president, one of the most popular campaign songs had the couplet: 

" Tippecanoe 
And Tyler too." 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 387 

During the war of 1812-15, that broke out soon afterwards, the Indians in 
the north-west generally joined the British. They massacred a large portion 
of the garrison of Fort Dearborn, at Chicago. But they were terribly punished 
by the devastation of their country. Tecumtha, who was commissioned a 
Brigadier-General in the British army, was slain at the battle of the Thames,, 
in Canada, at which General Harrison commanded the Americans. After the 
close of that war the Indians remained quiet, and formed friendly relations 
with the frontier settlers. 

On the 29th of June, 1816, the people of Indiana, in Convention assem- 
bled, adopted a State Constitution; and on the nth of December the same 
year the Territory was admitted as an independent State of the Union, when 
Jonathan Jennings was chosen its first Governor for the term of three years. 
The new State grew rapidly in wealth and population. 

In 1820 Indianapolis (then just laid out) became the seat of government, 
and in 1824 it was made the State capital. It is near the centre of the State,. 
on the west fork of the White River. It was incorporated a city in 1836. 
It contained 76,000 inhabitants in 1880. 

So rapidly did immigration pour into Indiana, as one of the consequences 
of the completion of the Erie cana by the State of New York, that more 
than 3,500,000 acres of land were purchased from the United States Govern- 
ment within the State during the ten years ending in 1830. Then began an 
era of wild speculation there. Vast internal improvements were begun. 
When the terrible collapse of the credit system occurred in 1837 there was 
general bankruptcy, and the State was burdened with a debt of over $14,000, 
000. But recuperation was soon completed, and in 1840 the population of the 
State had doubled. Between 1850 and i860 a great canal from the lakes to 
the Ohio River was completed, and in 1880 there were 5,069 miles of railroads 
in operation within its borders, which cost $213,462,348. 

When the Civil War broke out, Indiana took an intensely loyal position. 
The attack on Fort Sumter, in April, 1861, aroused the patriotic indignation 
of the people. Its Governor (Oliver P. Morton) was able and energetic, and 
gave a steady support to the National Government. Indiana troops were 
among the first in the field, and they were seen in almost every battle-field 
of that contest. One of the earlier battles (Romney) was fought by an 
Indiana regiment, led by Colonel Lew Wallace, who afterwards took a high 
rank in the army, in diplomacy and in literature. Indiana furnished to the 
National army 195,147 soldiers. 



388 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 



The heaviest agricultural product of Indiana li Indian corn. In 1880, 
according to the census, that product amounted to 115,482,300 bushels. Its 
wheat product was 47,300,000 bushels; its oats yield was 15,600,000 bushels; 
and its wool product was 6,168,000 pounds. It is an extensive manufacturing 
State. The value of its total manufactures, in 1880, was $148,000,000, in 
which pursuit nearly $66,000,000 were invested. 

The assessed value of the taxable property of the State, in 1880, was 
$727,815,122. The State debt was only $4,998,178. 

The State expended, in 1880, the sum of $4,504,407 for public instruc- 
tion. The number of children of school age in 1885, from six to twenty-one 
years, was 740,176. Of these 12,112 were taught in private schools. There 
were in the State, in 1885, fourteen colleges and universities. 

Indiana has been nicknamed " The Hoosier State." The word hoosier is 
a corruption of Imsher, formerly a common term for a bully throughout the 
West 







(1716.) 




'The State of Mississippi lies between latitude 30° 20' and 
35° north, and longitude 88° 12' and 91° 4° west. Its 
area is 47,156 square miles, and in 1880 its population 
was 1,131,597. Of these 652,199, including 1857 Indians, 
were colored. Arkansas and Louisiana lie on its western 
border, Tennessee on its northern, Alabama on its east- 
ern, and Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico on its northern boundary. 

The northern and eastern portions of Mississippi present a fine rolling 
country; the southern part is level, and much of the whole State is marshy, 
but very fertile in the northern part. The north-eastern counties embrace 
fine prairie land, and the south-eastern counties are covered with a dense 
growth of pine trees. 

It is probable that the first European who trod the soil of Mississippi 
was Fernando De Soto, an energetic Spanish adventurer, who accompanied 
Pizarro to Peru, and afterwards conducted an expedition to Florida in 
search of gold. He sailed from Cuba at the middle of May, 1539, with a 
thousand followers, cattle, horses, and SAvine, to found a State there as well 
as to procure gold. He landed on the shores of Tampa Bay and started on 
his quest, exercising such cruelty toward the gentle natives whom he found 
there that he made enemies of them all. 

For nearly two years De Soto wandered, chiefly in a north-westerly 
direction at first, his companions greatly diminishing in numbers by slaughter 
and disease, until May, 1541, when he stood upon the banks of the mighty 
Mississippi River, then full to the brim. He had crossed the (present) State 
'of Mississippi, and was now near the Lower Chickasaw Bluffs, in Tunica 
'County. The Spaniards made no settlements, and for 132 years afterwards 
that region was hidden from the ken of dwellers in the Eastern hemisphere. 
Then (1673) Marquette and Joliet, two French explorers, having floated down 



390 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

the Mississippi in canoes, touched at several points on the shores of the State 
we are considering. 

De la Salle and the Chevalier di Tonti (see Louisiana) visited the Natchez 
Indians in 1682, and spent some time among them. These Indians, seated 
on the site of Natchez, were most interesting objects for the contemplation of 
these visitors. They were more enlightened than any of the barbarian 
nations north of Mexico, They were Sun and Fire worshippers. Their King 
they called " the Great Sun," and the chiefs "Suns," Like the Parsees of 
India, their priests kept a fire continually burning in their principal temple, 
and offered sacrifices of the first-fruits of the earth and of the chase. The 
Natchez was a small nation. 




BIENVILLE, PROMINENT CHARACTER IN HISTORY OF MlSSISSim. 

The first attempt to found a colony within the bounds of Mississippi was 
made by Iberville in 1699. He landed 200 emigrants from France on the 
shores of Biloxi Bay, where he built a fort, and there fostered the germ of 
the subsequent settlements at New Orleans and Mobile. He made his 
brother, Bienville, King's lieutenant, and on his departure his brother, Sau- 
ville, became Governor of Louisiana. Iberville visited the Natchez nation, 
where he was very kindly received, and was given leave to build a fort at 
their metropolitan village on the bank of the Mississippi River. 

A few French stragglers made their way to the Natchez, but no effort at 
settlement was made there until Bienville, in 1716, built a fortification on the 
site of Natchez, and named it Fort Rosalie, in compliment to the Countess 
Pontchartrain, It is supposed to have stood near the eastern limit of tlie 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 39i 

present city of Natchez. The colony then established there was also called 
Rosalie. Biloxi was abandoned and Rosalie flourished for a time, though, in 
1718, it came under the control of John Law, the great gambler and specula- 
tor. Bienville planted other colonies in the Yazoo region and at other points, 
but their growth was feeble. 

The " Great Sun " of the Natchez was at first the warm friend of the 
white settlers around Fort Rosalie, but the commandant of that work, M. 
Chopart, behaved so cruelly toward him and his people, that his friendship 
was alienated. Chopart even ordered the chief to leave the village of his an- 
cestors, with his people, when the " Great Sun " resolved to rid his country of 
the intruders. He formed a plot to this end. A young Indian girl, who 
loved the ensign of the garrison, revealed the plot to him, whilst tears ran 
down her cheeks. The ensign told Chopart of the plot, who put him in irons 
for giving a false alarm. Fatal security! 

On the appointed day, November 29, 1729, the " Great Sun," with a few 
chosen warriors, repaired to the fort. They were all armed with knives and 
other concealed weapons. A large supply of powder, lead and provisions 
had lately been sent to the fort. The Indians applied for a supply of am- 
munition for a great hunt upon which they said they were about to enter, and 
brought corn and poultry to barter for it. Thus the garrison was thrown ofT 
its guard, and a number of the Indians were permitted to enter the fort ; 
among them the Great Sun. Others were distributed among the warehouses 
of the " Company of the Indies" (see Louisiana) at various points. 

The Great Sun gave a signal, when his followers drew their concealed 
weapons and proceeded to massacre the garrison and all near the warehouses. 
The massacre began about nine o'clock in the morning, and before noon the 
-whole male population of the French colony in that region was destroyed — 
about seven hundred in number. The negro slaves and women and children 
were saved. Two soldiers, who happened to be away in the woods at the 
time, hearing the yells of the barbarians, who were excited by liquor, and the 
smoke from burning buildings, as they were returning, escaped in a boat and 
carried the dreadful tidings to New Orleans. The colony on the Yazoo had 
shared the same fate ; also at two or three other places, and dismay spread 
over all the settlements. 

The exasperated French at New Orleans at once began a war of exter- 
mination. The little nation of the Natchez were driven across the Mississippi 
and dispersed, when most of them perished, while the Great Sun and his prin- 



392 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

cipal war chiefs, made prisoners, were sent to Santo Domingo and sold as^ 
slaves. The nation was wiped out. Other prisoners were captured to the 
number of about 400, and were taken to New Orleans and sold as slaves. 

Louisiana, which embraced Mississippi, became a royal province in 1730^ 
and in 1733 Bienville (who had gone to France) was sent back as Governor. 

Other wars with the Indians ensued. In 1763, Eastern Louisiana, which 
included present Mississippi and nearly all Alabama, was ceded to Great 
Britain by the treaty of Paris, which ended French dominion in North Amer- 
ica. Soon afterwards emigration from the English colonies and the Atlantic 
seaboard began to people that region. 

Early in 1798 the United States became possessed of Eastern Louisiana,, 
and on April 7 of that year the domain was erected into the " Territory o£ 
Mississippi " by act of the National Congress. It comprised all of the pres- 
ent States of Mississippi and Alabama, between latitude 30° and 35^ north.. 
A Territorial Government was organized in 1802: William C. C. Clairborne 
was appointed Governor, and was made a commissioner, with General Wilkin- 
son, to take possession of Louisiana when it was purchased from France. Irt 
1804 Clairborne was appointed Governor of the Territory of Louisiana. 

Mississippi proper was very little affected by the war of 1812-15, or ther 
preceding wars with the Indians. Many of the most stirring events of the 
war with the Creek nation occurred in its eastern portion, which is now the 
State of Alabama. {Sec Alabatna.) In 181 1 the portion oi the Territory 
below 31°, ceded by Spain, was added to Mississippi. 

In March, 1817, Alabama was set off from Mississippi, and its dimensions-, 
were reduced to the present area of the State. A delegate Convention framed 
a State Constitution soon afterwards, which gave to all adult male white resi- 
dents the right of suffrage, but a pecuniary qualification was required to hold 
office. The Governor, chosen for two years, must possess 600 acres of land,, 
or other real property to the value of $2000; the Senators, chosen for three 
years, half as much ; and the members of the House, chosen for one year,, 
half the qualification of Senators. 

On the subject of slavery the Constitution provided that the Legislature 
should have no power to pass laws for the emancipation of slaves without the 
consent of their owners, nor without paying therefor, previous to such 
emancipation, a full equivalent in money; nor laws to prevent immigrants 
from bringing with them persons deemed slaves by the laws of any one of the 
United States, so long as any persons of like age and descriptioa should be. 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 393 

continued in slavery by the laws of the State. But laws might be passed 
prohibiting the introduction of slaves for the purpose of sale, and also laws 
to compel the owners of slaves to treat them with humanity, to provide them 
with necessary clothing and provisions, and to abstain from all injuries ex- 
tending to life and Hmb. Provision might also be made, in case of disobe- 
dience to such laws, for the sale of a slave to some other owner, the proceeds 
to be paid over to the late master. The Legislature was also required to 
pass laws giving to owners of slaves the right of emancipation, saving the 
rights of creditors, and requiring security that the emancipated slaves should 
not become a burden to the county. Similar restrictions and provisions had 
been made in the first Constitution of Kentucky. A new Constitution was 
adopted in 1832, when the slave population of the State had been, for thirty 
years, in excess of the free population. David Holmes was chosen the first 
Governor of the State of Mississippi. 

Mississippi, after the election of Mr. Lincoln to the Presidency of the 
United States, was one of the earliest of the slave-labor States to take meas- 
ures for seceding from the Union. Its Legislature assembled at Jackson, its. 
capital, early in November, i860, the special object of the session being to 
make preparations for the secession of the State. A Convention was author- 
ized to meet on January 7, 1861, and an election of delegates thereto was 
ordered to take place on December 20. The Governor (John J. Pettus) was 
authorized to appoint commissioners to visit each of the slave-labor States, 
to endeavor to secure their co-operation. 

A portion of the Legislature was for immediate separation and secession. 
The press of the State was divided in sentiment, and so were the people, 
while their representatives in Congress were active in promoting revolution, 
while retaining their seats. One of the latter was Lucius Q. C. Lamar (now^ 
1888, one of the Associate Justices of the United States Supreme Court), wha 
was afterwards sent as a diplomatic agent to the Russian Court by the Con- 
federacy. 

Before the close of November, i860, Mr. Lamar (who is a native of 
Georgia) submitted to the people of Mississippi a plan for a Southern Con- 
federacy. After reciting the ordinance by which Mississippi was created a 
member of the Union, and proposing its formal withdrawal therefrom, the 
plan proposed that the State of Mississippi should " consent to form a Federal 
Union " with all the slave-labor States, the Territory of New Mexico, and the 
Indian Territory west of Arkansas, under the name and style of the United 



394 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

States of America, and according to the tenor and effect of the Constitution 
of the United States," with slight exceptions. It proposed to continue in 
force all laws and treaties of the United States, so far as they applied to 
Mississippi, until the new Confederation should be organized, and that all 
regulations, contracts and engagements made by the old Government should 
remain in force. It provided that the Governor of Mississippi should perform 
the functions of President of the new United States within the limits of that 
State, and that all public officers should remain in place until the new Gov- 
ernment should be established. It was also provided that the accession of 
nine States should give effect to the proposed ordinance of Confederation ; 
and that when such accession should occur, it should be the duty of the 
Governor to order an election of Congressmen and Presidential electors. 

The question of immediate secession or co-operation at once became a 
vital issue among the political leaders in Mississippi Two parties were 
formed, one called the " Secessionists,' and the other " Co-operationists." 
Each was equally zealous for secession. " These are but household quarrels," 
said a leading *' Co-operationist." "As against Northern combinations and 
agressions, we are united. We are all for resistance. W differ as to the 
mode; but the fell spirit of Abolitionism has no deadlier, and, we believe, no 
more practical foes than the Co-operationists of the South. We are willing 
to give the North a chance to say whether it will accept or reject the terms 
that a united South shall agree upon. If accepted, well and good; if not 
accepted, a united South can win all its rights, in or out of the Union." 

The Co-operationists," governed by reason rather than by passion, 
counselled waiting for an overt act of wrong on the part of the incoming 
Administration, before raising the resisting arm. The Hotspurs denounced 
this counsel as cowardly in thought and disastrous in practice. One of their 
poets put into the mouths of the " Co-operationists " these words of bitter 
irony : 

" We are waiting till Abe Lincoln grasps the purse and grasps the sword^ 
And is sending down upon us all his abolition horde ; 
Waiting till our friends are murdered, and our towns and cities sacked, 
And poor * Sambo ' gets his freedom — waiting for the ' overt act ' ; 
Waiting till our fields of cotton, cane and rice, and every grain, 
All are desolate and lonely 'neath King Cufifee's stupid reign; 
'Till our sisters, wives and daughters are compelled to his embrace — 
Yes, we're waiting! only waiting, for this horrible disgrace." 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 395 

The Convention met at Jackson, a town of 2500 inhabitants, on January 
7, 1861, Only about one-third of the members were " Co-operationists." 
The confident Secessionists at once assumed an arrogant and menacing tone. 
Delegates from South Carolina and Alabama, being present, were invited to 
seats in the Convention, and added weighty words in favor of immediate 
secession. An Ordinance of Secession was speedily drawn. It was reported 
on the 8th, and when the vote was taken many of the " Co-operationists," in- 
timidated by the words and manner of the Secessionists, had not the courage 
to vote No, and the next day the Ordinance was adopted by a vote of 
<eighty-four ayes and fifteen noes. The vote was declared unanimous by the 
Chairman, and Mississippi was proclaimed to be a " free, independent and sov- 
ereign State." Speaking for the people of the State (to whom the Ordinance 
was not submitted for their consideration) the instrument declared that they 
would " consent to form a Federal Union with such of the States as have 
seceded or may secede from the Union of the United States of America." 

The next step was to assert the " sovereignty " of Mississippi. South 
Carolina was acknowledged as a " sovereign State " by her younger but not 
less ardent sister, who, like herself, had a population of slaves greater in 
number than the population of freemen. Steps were taken to sever its con- 
nection with the National Government, excepting the convenient one of the 
postal system. They assumed the right to dictate the terms on which the 
Mississippi River should be navigated on that portion which washed the shores 
of that State. They planted a battery at Vicksburg, to the dictates of which 
all passers-by were required to bow, as to the cap of Gessler. These 
obstructions were maintained until removed by the power of the National 
forces in 1863. At that point was fought one of the most decisive battles of 
the Civil War, which resulted in victory for the National troops, at the 
"beginning of July, that year. 

In June, 1865, the President appointed W. L. Sharkey provisional Gov- 
ernor of Mississippi, who ordered an election of delegates to a Convention 
which met August 14. By that Convention the Ordinance of Secession was 
repealed, and the State Constitution was so amended as to abolish slavery. 
A Governor and Congressmen were elected in November, but the latter were 
not admitted to seats in the National Legislature, the Congress having its 
own plan for the re-organization of all disorganized States to carry out. 

Mississippi and Arkansas were constituted one military district, and mili- 
tary rule took the place of civil government. 



396 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 

Early in 1868 a Convention framed a new Constitution, which was rejected 
in June following. Congress, in the spring of 1869, authorized the President 
of the United States to again submit the Constitution to a vote of the people 
of Mississippi. It was almost unanimously ratified at an election in Novem- 
ber, when a loyal Governor was elected. In January, 1870, the Legislature 
ratified the Fourteenth amendment of the National Constitution, and in 
February Mississippi was re-admitted into the Union and the civil authority 
assumed control. 

The most valuable agricultural production of Mississippi is cotton. In 
1880 that crop exceeded that of any other State in the Union, being 963,111 
bales. It also produces abundance of rice, Indian corn, oats, some wheat, 
and sugar. It has comparatively few manufactures. In 1882 there were 
within its borders 1231 miles of railroad in operation, which cost nearly $9,000 
000. The assessed value of the taxable property of the State, real and per- 
sonal, in 1880, was a little more than $100,000,000. 

The total expenditure of the State for public instruction was $679,475 in 
1880. There were 426,689 children of school age, of whom 237,065 were en- 
rolled in the public schools, with an average daily attendance of 156,824. 
There were four colleges and universities in the State. 

Mississippi derives its name from that of the great river, which is an 
Indian word signifying " Father of Waters." It is nicknamed " The Bayou 
State," from the great number of its estuaries. 





(1720.) 

Illinois, one of the Central States of the Union, is in the 
upper valley of the Mississippi, between 30° 59' and 42° 
30' north latitude, and 87° 35' and 91° 40' west longi- 
tude. It embraces an area of 56,650 square miles. Its 
immediate neighbor on the north is Wisconsin. On the 
east is Lake Michigan and the States of Indiana and 
Kentucky, and on the west Iowa and Missouri. From the last two States it 
is separated by the Mississippi River. By the census of 1880 Illinois ranked 
fourth among the States in population, and first in the value of agricultural 
productions. 

The general aspect of the face of Illinois is a comparatively level surface. 
It consists in many parts of gently undulating prairies, covered with luxuriant 
grass, and an abundance of wild flowers of almost every description. Indeed 
the great landscape feature of Illinois is its beautiful prairies, stretching out 
like seemingly boundless lakes in almost every section of the Commonwealth. 
The State is a gently inclined plane sloping from Lake Michigan towards the 
Mississippi and Ohio rivers. The Grand Prairie is not more than 500 feet 
above the sea. At the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi the land is not 
more than 350 feet above the level of the Gulf of Mexico. Most of the State- 
is drained by the tributaries of the Mississippi, which washes its entire west- 
ern border. 

The first European settlers in Illinois were Frenchmen from Canada, who 
followed the Sieur de la Salle into the wilderness beyond the great lakes in 
the 17th century. That adventurer, as we have observed in the sketch of 
Ohio, sailed through the chain of lakes in a vessel (the Griffon) which he built 
not far from the site of Buffalo. When he sent her back from Green Bay, 
laden with furs, he, with Father Hennepin, the Chevalier di Tonti, and 
about thirty followers, cruised along the west shore of Lake Michigan to its 
southern extremity, whence they made their way to the Kankakee and 



398 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST 

•descended it to its mouth at a larger stream, in bark canoes. They descended 
that lar^^er stream to Lake Pi-mi-te-o-my (now Lake Peoria), at the foot of 
which they found a large encampment of the Illinois nation of barbarians. 

La Salle named the river, of which Lake Peoria is an expansion, the 
'"Illinois." There the adventurers spent the winter of 1679-80. Though 
they held friendly relations with the barbarians, it was a season of great 
anxiety, of fear, and to La Salle of disappointment, which almost amounted 
to despair, for circumstances convinced him that the Griffon, with her valua- 
ble cargo, was lost. This misfortune implied his ruin, yet he did not despair. 
He had received glowing accounts of the great river not far to the westward ; 




0— 

SHADRACH BOND, FIRST GOVERNOR UV ILLINOIS. 



and a little above where Peoria now stands, he began the construction of a 
fort, which was called Creve Coeur — " Broken Heart." Having secured his 
company in winter quarters. La Salle returned to his point of departure — a 
port on the site of Kingston, at the eastern end of Lake Ontario, afterwards 
called Frontenac, leaving Di Tonti in command at Creve Coeur. That fort 
was the first seed of European civilization planted in Illinois. 

La Salle soon returned to the wilderness. Meanwhile Father Hennepin 
had gone down the Illinois River to the Mississippi, and explored the upper 
waters of the mighty stream to the Falls of St. Anthony (see Minnesota). 
Creve Coeur was deserted, for a foray into that region by a band of Iroquois 
had caused Di Tonti and his men to seek safety among the Potawatomies 
near Chicago. 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 399 

Early in 1682 La Salle and his followers, having constructed a large 
barge on the Illinois River, descended it to the Mississippi, went down that 
river to its mouth, and, as we have observed (see Louisiana)^ there took pos- 
session of the Mississippi Valley in the name of the King of France. 
Returning, La Salle left a part of his company behind to form trading sta- 
tions. They established posts at Kaskaskia, Cahokia, and one or two other 
places within the present domain of Illinois. Emigrants from Canada soon 
joined these settlers, and these trading posts speedily became flourishing 
villages. So was begun the colonization of Illinois, about the year 1720. La 
Salle is justly regarded as the father of French colonization in the Valley o£ 
the Mississippi. 

The settlements .n Illinois had grown slowly but steadily for more than a 
score of years, when the Jesuits established missions at Kankaskia and 
Cohokia. Then the population most rapidly increased. The Peoria tribe 
desiring a mission among them, one was established on the site of Peoria in 
1711. Military forts were also established in Illinois and at St. Louis; and 
towards the middle of the i8th century the French had erected a line of for- 
tified posts from Niagara to the Gulf of Mexico. The English, seated on the 
Atlantic slope, tried to rival and check the French by attempts to settle ia 
the Ohio Valley 

By the conquest of Canada in 1760, and by the treaty at Paris in 1763, 
the English acquired possession of the French domains in North America. 
After the failure of his conspiracy in 1763, Pontiac took refuge among the 
Illinois Indians, where he was murdered. Illinois then had a population of 
about 3000. 

As we have observed (see Ohio), the United States established the vast 
north-western territory in 1787, which included Illinois. When the Indiana 
Territory was created, Illinois formed the western part of it. The Territory 
of Illinois was erected in 1809, and comprised the present State and that of 
Wisconsin and a part of Minnesota. 

The first most important movement toward the settlement of Illinois was 
made in 1773, when William Murray and others obtained from the Kaskaskia 
and Cahokia native chiefs deeds for a vast domain in Illinois. These deeds 
were pronounced legal by high English judicial authority. Other deeds were 
granted by Indian chiefs, and very soon English settlers appeared in that 
region. In 1765 the first English Governor of the undefined region was. 
appointed. 



400 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

During the old war for American independence, Western Illinois became 
a theatre of stirring military events. The English at Detroit stirred up the 
Indians in the north-west against the French settlers and those from the 
Atlantic seaboard. At that juncture appeared George Rogers Clarke, a bold 
" hunter of Kentucky," and a young Virginian who obtained permission to 
make a " campaign in Illinois," in the summer of 1778. He felt that he might 
count upon the co-operation of the French settlers there. With four com- 
panies of volunteers, chiefly Virginians, he went down the Ohio River to Fort 
Massac, where they landed, and pushed on through the wilderness towards 
Kaskaskia, which was garrisoned by British troops. On arriving near that 
post, unobserved, they halted until night, when orders were given that per- 
sons who could speak the French language should be sent in every direction 
to give notice to the inhabitants " that every man who should appear on the 
streets would be shot down." 

The expedition crossed the river in boats, and, directed by a soldier who 
liad been made a prisoner, the fort and the town were speedily taken. 
Within two hours the inhabitants were disarmed without bloodshed. The 
-expedition had come by land and water 13CXD miles, a part of the way through 
a wilderness trodden by hostile barbarians. They pushed on to and captured 
Cahokia, fifty miles further up the Mississippi River, with equal ease. Clarke 
and his little force afterwards captured the British fort at Vincennes, now in 
Indiana. (See Indtaua.) 

The white settlements in Illinois were much disturbed by Indian forays 
until after the treaty at Greenville, in 1795, when peace reigned until the 
ambitious Tecumtha, in imitation of Pontiac, endeavored to form a confeder- 
ation of the Indian tribes in the north-west for the extermination of the 
frontier settlements. 

In 1809, as we have observed, the western portion of Indiana was erected 
into the Territory of Illinois, at which time there were nearly I2,CK)0 white 
inhabitants within that domain. The battle of Tippecanoe frustrated the 
plans of Tecumtha (see Indiana), and the barbarians were made to feel a 
wholesome fear of the military in that region; but when the war of 1812-15 
broke out soon afterwards, and they formed alliances with the British, they 
became bold and aggressive. At about the time when Detroit was surren- 
dered to the British (see Michigan'), in August, 1812, the Indians became 
parties to a dreadful tragedy at Chicago, on the western shore of Lake Mich- 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 401 

igan. It then consisted of Fort Dearborn, the home of a Canadian trader, 
and a few huts. 

When war was declared, in June, 181 2, the garrison at Chicago consisted 
of a single company of United States regular soldiers, commanded by Captain 
Heald. The other ofificers were Lieutenant Helm, Ensign Ronan, and Sur- 
geon Van Voorhes. The wives of Heald and Helm were there. A few fam- 
ilies had removed to the protection of the fort, both French and Canadians. 
The surrounding Indians were Potawotamies, who were in alliance with the 
British. 

On the 7th of Auugst, 1812, a friendly Potawotamie chief — "Catfish" — 
arrived at Fort Dearborn with a despatch from General Hull at Detroit, con- 
taining the first news received at Chicago of the declaration of war. The 
letter announced the capture of Mackinaw, and directed Captain Heald to 
evacuate the fort, if practicable, and in that event to distribute all the United 
States property contained in the fort and the agency among the Indians of 
the neighborhood as a peace offering, and to repair to Fort Wayne. 

Catfish advised Captain Heald to remain in the fort, being amply supplied 
-with provisions and ammunition; but if the Captain decided to evacuate, to 
do so at once, before the barbarians could have time to gather their forces. 
■" Leave the fort and the stores as they are," he said, " and let them make 
distribution themselves, and while the Indians are engaged in that business 
the white people may make their way to Fort Wayne in safety." 

Captain Heald did not heed this judicious advice, but declared that he 
should evacuate the fort in accordance with Hull's instructions. He did not 
consult his junior ofificers. These, when they heard of his determination, 
remonstrated against it, believing that the troops could not pass through the 
country of the hostile Indians with safety. He refused to listen to them, and 
prepared to assemble the Potawotamies and distribute the property among 
them. The soldiers began to murmur, and dissatisfaction prevailed through- 
out the garrison. The surrounding Indians became more unruly every hour, 
and yet Captain Heald, with fatal procrastination, postponed the assembling 
of the barbarians for almost three days. Qn the afternoon of the 12th the 
commander held a farewell council with them. His ofificers refused to join 
him in the council, for they had received intimations that treachery was 
designed. The chiefs were much agitated, and the squaws were greatly 
excited. 

Captain Heald's attention was called to the impolicy of furnishing the 



402 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

Indians with ammunition to be used against the white people. He was 
alarmed, and at evening he had the powder cast into a well, and the liquor of 
the garrison poured into the little stream close by the fort. The watchful 
and suspicious Indians had observed this perfidy, and were greatly excited 
thereby. 

On the morning of the 15th, the day appointed for the evacuation of the 
fort, there was positive evidence of the intention of the Indians to massacre 
the white people. The barbarians were overwhelming in numbers. When, 
at nine o'clock, the gate of the fort was thrown open, the march began. 
The band struck up the Dead March in Saul. Mrs. Heald rode by the side 
of her husband, on horseback. Captain Wells, her uncle, a veteran Indian 
fighter, led the procession, followed by a band of friendly Miamis. 

At the Sand Hills, between the prairie and the beach (between Indiana 
and Michigan avenues, just south of North street, Chicago), the Potawota- 
mies, 500 in number, attacked the white people. The cowardly Miamis fled 
at the first onslaught. The troops fought desperately, but fully two-thirds of 
the white people were slain. Twenty-eight strong men had broken through 
the ranks of the enemy, and gained a slight eminence on the prairie. The 
barbarians did not follow. A parley ensued, and arrangements were made 
for a surrender of the white survivors as prisoners of war, to be redeemed by 
ransoms. The captors and the captives hastened to the fort. There nearly 
all the wounded men were killed and scalped, for the British commander at 
Maiden had offered a bounty for such trophies. 

In the conflict at the Sand Hills the women bore a conspicuous part. 
The wife of Capain Heald, who was an expert with the rifle, and was an ex- 
cellent equestrian, deported herself bravely. She received severe wounds. 
Though bleeding and faint, she managed to keep her saddle. An Indian 
raised his tomahawk to kill her, when she looked him full in the face, and,, 
with a sweet, melancholy smile, said in his native tongue — " Surely you will 
not kill a squaw ! " The appeal was effectual and her life was spared. The 
wife of Lieutenant Helm had a severe personal conflict with a stalwart young 
Indian, who attempted to tomahawk her. She sprang on one side, and re- 
ceived the blow intended for her head upon her shoulder, when she endeav- 
ored to get hold of his scalping-knife that hung in a sheath on his breast- 
While thus struggling she was dragged from her antagonist by another 
Indian, who bore her, in spite of her desperate resistance to the margin of 
the lake and plunged her in, and at the same time she was held so that she 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 405 

should not drown. He was Blackbird, a chief friendly to her husband and 
her father (Mr. Kinzie). Taken to the prairie after the encounter, she there 
learned that her husband was safe. Mrs. Heald was also saved, as a prisoner 
of war, for ransom. 

The people of Illinois, having adopted a State Constitution, the Territory 
was admitted to the Union on December 3, 1818, as an independent Common- 
wealth with Shadrach Bond as its first Governor, who held the position from 
1818 until 1822. It then had 35,220 inhabitants. In 1832 the troubles with the 
Indians culminated in the " Black Hawk war," which resulted in the removal 
of all the dusky barbarians from the State. 

The growth of the Commonwealth in population was remarkable. There 
the Mormons, persecuted in Missouri, seated themselves, and began building 
a temple at Nauvoo. Their conduct was so offensive to the people that 
they determined to drive them from the State. Joseph Smith, the founder 
of that body, and his brother Hiram, were murdered by a mob at Carthage 
jail late in June, 1844. ^^ the autumn the Mormons, 20,000 in number, left 
the State and migrated to Utah. 

The growth of Chicago, the chief city of Illinois, in population and 
wealth, is one of the marvels of history. It was surveyed for a village in 
1830; in 1880, fifty years afterwards, it contained over 503,000 inhabitants. 

The cereal products of Illinois are greater in amount than those of any 
other State in the Union. In 1880 it yielded 325,792,481 bushels of Indian 
corn; 51,110,502 bushels of wheat, and 63,189,200 bushels of oats. Nearly 
4,000,000 pounds of tobacco were raised, and over 6,000,000 pounds of wool. 
It had over 1,000,000 horses, 2,384,322 horned cattle, 1,037,600 sheep, and 
5,170,266 swine. 

In 1880 there were 14,549 manufacturing establishments, with $140,652,- 
066 capital' invested in the business, and producing goods of the value of 
$414,664,673. In that year there were 9383 miles of railways in operation 
within the State — more miles than in any other State. 

In 1880 Illinois was out of debt. The assessed valuation of its taxable 
property, real and personal, was $786,616,394. 

The number of children of school age in Illinois in 1884 was 1,069,274, of 
whom 728,681 were enrolled in the public schools, with an average daily at- 
tendance of 485,625. The total expenditure for public schools was $7,536,682. 
There were 80,440 pupils in private schools. There were twenty-eight univer- 
sities and colleges, two State normal universities, and many normal schools. 





(1711.) 

Alabama is one of the Gulf States, lying between latitude 
30° 15' and 35° north, and longitude 84° 56' and 88° 48' 
west. It embraces an area of 52,250 square miles, and 
had a population in 1880 of 1,262,505, of whom 600,320, 
including 213 Indians, were colored. On its northern 
boundary lies the State of Tennessee; on the east, 
Georgia and Florida ; on the south, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico, and on 
the west, Mississippi. 

The north-eastern part of Alabama is diversified by the outlying hills of 
the Alleghany Mountains, which here have their southern termination, and 
gradually form a fine rolling country, which covers the whole surface of the 
State to within fifty or sixty miles of the Gulf. The most important river in 
the State is the Alabama, formed by the junction of the Coosa and Talla- 
poosa rivers about ten miles above Montgomery, the State capital. 

When De Soto and his followers traversed the Alabama region, in 1540, 
they found the country well populated by a race of red-men, who possessed 
elements of civilization. They were evidently an offshoot of the Aztecs. 
They were worshippers of the sun, moon and stars. They were an athletic 
and vigorous race. The men were well-proportioned, active and graceful in 
all their movements. The women were smaller, exquisitely formed, and some 
of them very beautiful. 

The common men, in colder weather, wore a mantle about the size of a 
blanket, made of cloth wrought of the soft inner bark of trees, interwoven 
with hemp or flax. They wore them gracefully over the shoulder, leaving 
the right arm exposed. Around the loins was a short tunic, extending to the 
middle of the thighs. The richer men and nobles wore beautiful mantles 
made of feathers of every hue, exquisitely arranged on the skins of fur-bear- 
ing animals, with dressed deer-skin tunics wrought in colors, and mocassins 
and buckskins. 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 



405 



The women of the better sort, at the cooler season, wore a garment of 
cloth or feathers or furs, wrought like the mantle of the men. It was 
wrapped more closely around the body at the waist, and fell gradually down 
to the knee. The rest of the body was left bare, except in the coldest 
weather, when they wore short mantles that fell from the neck to the hips. 
Their heads were always uncovered. Both sexes wore ornaments made of 
beautiful shells, the claws of beasts, or strings of pearls. It is related that an 
Indian queen, on the banks of the Savannah, took from her neck a magnifi- 
cent string of pearls, and wound it around that of De Soto. Sometimes they 
wore pearl pendants in their ears. 




DE SOTO, PROMINENT IN THE HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 

The theology or religious system of the people was very simple. They 
regarded the Sun as the Supreme Deity, and venerated the moon, the planets, 
and some of the brighter stars. In their benedictions they would sing, " May 
the Sun bless you ! " '' May the Sun guard you ! " or " May the Sun be with 
you ! " They had temples, in which were well-wrought wooden statues, some 
•of them of persons who were entombed in the sacred place. Rich votive 
offerings of pearls, deer-skins and furs were seen in their temples, all dedi- 
cated to the Sun, the great god whom they worshipped. They seem not to 
bave had a Great Spirit in their system of worship. 

At the beginning of March the men of the community selected the skin 
of the largest deer, with the head and legs attached, which they filled with a 



4o6 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

variety of fruit and grain. It was sewed up, and appeared like a live creature: 
in form. Its horns were garlanded with fruits and early spring fIowers_ 
Then the effigy was carried in a procession of all the inhabitants to a plain,, 
and placed on the top of a high post. There, at the moment of the sun- 
rising, the people all fell upon their knees, with their faces toward the 
luminary, and implored the Sun-god to grant them, the ensuing season, an. 
abundance of fruit and grain as good as those which they then offered. 

Some of the social customs of these semi-barbarians were very attractive. 
We meiy consider only one, that of the marriage of a chief. He would send 
out some of his principal men to select from the daughters of the best fami- 
lies the youngest and prettiest of the marriageable ones, for his bride. 
The chosen one was painted and decorated in the most tasteful manner pre- 
paratory to the nuptials. She was covered from her waist almost to her' 
knees with a tunic of rich feathers. Then she was placed in a sedan chair, 
the top of which was an arch of green boughs, festooned and garlanded with 
flowers. In that vehicle she was conveyed to the presence of her future lord 
on the shoulders of six noblemen, who were preceded by musicians and two^ 
men bearing magnificent feather fans, and followed by dancing girls and rela- 
tives of the bride. Arrived at the palace, she was received by the lords in 
waiting, who conducted her to a seat by the side of her husband, on an 
elevated dais, when great i)onip and ceremony were displayed by those in 
attendance. 

If the weather was warm the young couple were constantly fanned by 
beautiful maidens, and were regaled with the unfermented juice of the grape: 
in its season, or with a kind of sherbet made of orange juice at other times.. 
At near the sun-setting, the chief and his young wife walked out into an open 
field, followed by all the people, and at the last parting ray of the luminary 
they prostrated themselves towards the west, and invoked the blessings of 
the Sun upon themselves and their children. From that moment until the 
stars appeared the people indulged in music and dancing — the music of the- 
reed antl a sort of tambourine, ami the dancing of young men and maidens — 
when the chief and his bride retired to their dwelling, there, with friends, to 
partake of a marriage-feast by the light of lamps. 

Such were the people — kind and hospitable, amiable and just — who in- 
habited the Ciulf region wlun l)e Soto and his rough followers invaded theif 
country in 1540, ami made portions of their paradise a sort of pandemonium,, 
for a while. 



ITS STATES AND TP:RRIT0RIES. 407 

De Soto and his armed followers, on foot and on horseback, after fight- 
-ing their way through Florida and Georgia, entered the beautiful and fertile 
Coosa country, in Alabama. Tidings of their treachery and cruelty had gone 
before them. On the borders of the Savannah River they had been hospita- 
bly entertained by an Indian queen, a young and beautiful maiden who ruled 
over a large extent of country. She offered them her services; gave De Soto 
rich presents, and entertained the Castilians many days, when they departed 
-westward in search of gold. De Soto requited the kindness of the maiden 
•queen by carrying her away, a prisoner, keeping her near his person as a 
hostage for the good behavior of her people. She finally escaped, and sent 
■couriers throughout the Gulf region to proclaim the perfidy of the Spaniards. 

Early in 1540 De Soto pushed southward through the Alabama region, 
repaying hospitality with treachery and injustice at every step. The Span- 
iards came to the temporary residence of the " Black Warrior," Tuscaloosa, 
lord of many tribes, and feared by the people in the region between the 
Alabama and Mississippi rivers. He was haughty in demeanor, gigantic in 
stature, grave in aspect, and forty years of age. He was the head of the 
Mobilian tribes. De Soto invited him to journey with him a little distance. 
He reluctantly consented. Placed on a powerful horse, and with few atten- 
dants, he soon found himself a prisoner to the Spaniards, who held him as a 
l\ostage, De Soto continually riding by his side. They crossed the Alabama 
River at (present) Selma, and journeyed toward the sea. 

De Soto soon discovered signs which gave him uneasiness. Tuscaloosa 
was in continual consultation with his principal attendants. He was also 
sending runners to his capital, Maubila, telling De Soto he was preparing for 
their honorable reception there. De Soto did not believe him, and took pre- 
cautions against treachery. 

De Soto and Tuscaloosa rode into Maubila together on a bright October 
morning, and were received in a great square, with music, songs, and the 
dancing of Indian girls. They dismounted, and when seated under a canopy 
of State, Tuscaloosa requested not to be held as a hostage any longer. De 
Soto hesitated, when the angry Emperor sprang to his feet, and with haughty 
demeanor walked into a dwelling near by. De Soto's interpreter was sent to 
invite him to return to breakfast with him. Tuscaloosa refused, saying, " If 
your chief knows what is best for him, he will immediately take his troops 
out of my country." 

De Soto had scarcely recovered from his surprise when he was informed 



408 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

that fully 10,000 warriors, followers of Tuscaloosa, well armed, were in the 
houses. A greater portion of the Spaniards were lagging in the woods, hunt- 
ing, in fancied security. De Soto, anxious to postpone an attack until his 
followers should arrive, approached Tuscaloosa with smiles and gracious 
words. The chief turned haughtily away, and mingled with his warriors. At 
that moment another chief rushed out, and denounced the Spaniards as 
thieves and robbers. One of the greatest soldiers of the expedition, angered 
by this insolence, cleft the chief with his sword from his head to his loins. 
Like bees from hives, the barbarians, made furious by this act, swarmed out 
from the buildings, and gradually pushed the invaders out of the gates of the 
town into the plain. At that first encounter five Spaniards were killed and 
many more wounded — among them, De Soto. 

The Indians were soon driven back into the town with great slaughter. 
They drove back the Spaniards in turn by clouds of arrows and tempests of 
stones, hurled from their wall-towers and loop-holes. For three hours there- 
was a fierce hand-to-hand fight. Meanwhile the lagging body of Spaniards 
had arrived. The Indians, driven into the city, closed and barricaded the 
gates. These were soon forced. The Spaniards rushed in. A dreadful car- 
nage ensued. Young women in large numbers fought side by side with the 
warriors, with equal bravery and skill. At length De Soto, shouting " Our 
Lady and Santiago!" made a furious charge with horse and foot, making 
fearful lines through the ranks of fighting men and women. Houses were 
fired, and the combatants were shrouded in blinding smoke. 

As night closed in the contest ceased. Eighty-two Spaniards, the flower 
of the expedition, had perished, and it was estimated that 11,000 Alabamians 
fell in the struggle. The Spaniards remained near the ruined capital of the 
Mobilians. Foraging parties went out for supplies to Indian villages near„ 
and captured many Indian maidens; and they learned from them that De 
Soto's squadron was in Pensacola Bay. 

Such was the introduction of Europeans to the natives of Alabama. 

For about a century and a half after this tragedy, no European's foot 
trod the soil of Alabama. In 1702, as we have observed (see Louisiana), 
Bienville transferred the French colony at Biloxi to Mobile. They landed at 
Dauphin Island, in Mobile Bay, where they constructed a fortified warehouse. 
Afterwards the greater part of the colony seated themselves on the shore of 
Mobile Bay, and called the settlement Mobile, after the tribe with whom De 
Soto fought at Maubila. Here was the seat of government for about nine 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 409 

years, when, in 171 1, they founded the town of Mobile, which is now the 
commercial metropolis of the State. The French made settlements on the 
Alabama River, among them (present) Montgomery, the political capital of 
the State. They also made treaties of friendship with the neighboring Indian 
tribes, but they were not exempted from wars with the natives. 

Alabama, with Mississippi, was transferred to the English by the treaty 
at Paris in 1763. In 1783 it became a part of the territory of the United 
States. It was at first attached to Georgia and South Carolina, but in 1798 it 
formed the eastern portion of the Mississippi territory. Speculators, who 
were organized under the titles of " the South Carolina Yazoo Company," 
" the Virginia Yazoo Company," and " the Tennessee Company," contracted 
for immense tracts of land in Mississippi and Alabama, and some attempts at 
settlement were made. Trading posts had been established by the English 
and Americans, and became the nuclei of settlements and towns. 

It was upon the soil of Alabama that Aaron Burr was arrested on a 
charge of treasonable designs, in 1807, taken to Fort Stoddard, near the con- 
fluence of the Alabama and Tombigbee rivers, and sent to Richmond for trial. 

When the war of 1812-15 broke out, a large portion of Alabama was 
occupied by the powerful nation of Creek Indians. Tecumtha (see Indiana) 
had been among them and stirred them up to hostilities against the Ameri- 
cans, and they soon began a fierce war. In the summer of 1813 they fell 
upon Fort Mims, not far above the junction of the Alabama and Tombigbee 
rivers. It was a strong, stockaded work, and the commander of the garrison 
believed it to be strong enough to resist any attack from the barbarians. To 
it many families had moved as a place of safety from the hostile Creeks. 

On a beautiful day in August, the 550 men, women and children in the 
fort were enjoying themselves, with a feeling of perfect security. A body of 
Creek warriors, led by Weathersford, a noted chief, attacked the post without 
warning. The garrison made a gallant resistance for three hours, but were 
nearly all slain. The Indians pressed into it, and at sunset 400 of the in- 
mates of Fort Mims lay dead. Not a white woman or child escaped. 

This massacre aroused the people of the whole South. General Jackson 
led troops against the Creeks, when several battles were fought. Notwith- 
standing the barbarians were encouraged and assisted by the British, they 
were finally overcome. With the battle at " Horse-shoe Bend," in 1814, when 
the Creeks lost about 600 men, the war ended, and the result was the abso- 
lute destruction of that once powerful nation. Only a remnant was left. 



4IO THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

After the Creeks disappeared, the region of Alabama was rapidly settled. 
** The flood-gates of Virginia, the two Carolinas, Tennessee, Kentucky and 
Georgia were now hoisted," wrote an observer, " and the mighty stream of 
emigration poured through them, spreading over the whole domain of 
Alabama," It was erected into a Territory in 1818, with William W. Bibb 
as Governor. The territorial Legislature assembled at St. Stephens. In the 
summer of 18 19 Alabama was admitted into the Union as an independent 
State. Its first General Assembly convened at Huntsville, Mr. Bibb was 
chosen first Governor of the new Commonwealth. 

Alabama was one of the largest slave-holding States of the Union. Its 
political leaders took strong ground in favor of Secession in i860. They 
were divided on the question of immediate " Secession " and " Co-operation." 
(See Mississippi^ At an election of members of a State Convention held late 
in December, the vote for "Co-operation" was about 11,000 more than for 
Secession. 

The Convention assembled at Montgomery on January 7, 1861. Every 
county in the State was represented. There was a powerful infusion of 
Union sentiment exhibited in that body. A committee of thirteen drew up 
an Ordinance of Secession. It was longer than any other already adopted, 
but of similar tenor. It was submitted on the lOth. There was a minority 
report. Some members advocated a postponement of the question until after 
the 4th of March, with a hope of preserving the Union. A member from 
northern Alabama boldly declared his belief that the people of his section 
would not submit to any disunion scheme, when he and the people of his 
section were denounced as " tories, traitors and rebels." 

The final vote on Secession was taken on January 11, and resulted in 
sixty-one ayes and thirty-nine nays. The Convention favored the formation 
of a confederacy of slave-holding States, and formally invited the others to 
send delegates to meet those of Alabama on February 4, at Montgomery, for 
consultation on the subject. A Secession flag, which the women of Mont- 
gomery had presented to the Convention, was raised over the Capital. 

On the 4th of February, 1861, a Convention of delegates from six 
southern States assembled at Montgomery and formed a league called the 
" Confederate States of America." The Convention chose Jefferson Davis 
provisional President of the Confederacy, and Alexander H. Stephens Vice- 
President. A provisional Constitution was adopted, and the machinery of 
the Confederate Government was put in motion. Montgomery became its 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 411 

capital, and so remained until the following summer, when the seat of 
Government was transferred to Richmond, Virginia. 

In the war that ensued Alabama suffered much. Several severe battles 
occurred within its domain, notably the naval contest in Mobile Bay, the 
capture of Mobile in 1865, and the capture of Selma and other towns by 
General Wilson, who made destructive raids through the State. 

In June, 1865, a provisional Government for Alabama was appointed. In 
September a State Convention declared the Ordinance of Secession and the 
State debt null ; passed an ordinance against slavery, and provided for an 
election of State officers, who were chosen in November. The Government 
thus constituted remained in force until superseded by military rule in 1867. 
In November of that year a Convention framed a new State Constitution, 
which was ratified February 4, 1868. All requirements being complied with, 
Alabama became entitled to representation in the National Congress. On 
July 14, 1868, the military relinquished to the civil authorities all legal con- 
trol. The Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments to the Constitution were 
ratified by Alabama, the latter on November i6th, 1870. 

Cotton is the largest agricultural production of Alabama. It ranks sixth 
among the States in the production of Indian corn. In 1880, 699,654 bales 
of cotton were produced, and 25,451,278 bushels of corn. Its manufactures 
are not large, textile fabrics being the chief product of its manufacturing 
industries. In 1880 there were 1852 miles of railway in operation within the 
borders of the State. 

The assessed value of taxable property in Alabama in 1880 was $122,867,- 
228. The State debt was over $9,000,000. 

The State had, in 1880, a school population of 376,649, of whom 174,485 
were enrolled in the public schools. That year $430,131 was expended by 
the State for public schools. There were four universities and colleges, and 
iorty-nine academies and seminaries. 

Alabama is a Creek word, signifying " Here we rest." 





(1625.) 

, Maine is the largest of the New England States, embrac- 
ing an area of 33,040 square miles of territory. It is 
also the most easterly of the States of the Union. It 
lies between latitude 43° 4' and 47° 31' north, and longi- 
tude 66° 45' and 71° 6' west. On the north-west it is 
bounded by Quebec, Dominion of Canada; on the north 
by Quebec and New Brunswick; on the south and south-east by the Atlantic 
Ocean, and on the west by New Hampshire. Part of the Isle of Shoals, near 
New Hampshire, belongs to Maine. In 1880 the population of the State was 
648,936, of whom 2084, including 625 Indians, were colored. 

The seacoast of Maine is generally low, flat, and at some points marshy 
for ten or twenty miles in the interior, and is deeply indented with numerous 
bays and inlets, some of them forming excellent harbors. The Appalachian 
chain of mountains, which extends through the United States to Alabama, has- 
its origin in the Province of New Brunswick, crosses Maine in a south-westerly 
direction, and joins the White Mountains in New Hampshire. This chain is 
broken into moderately lofty peaks. Mount Katahdin, near the centre of 
the State, rises to an altitude of 5385 feet. High up on these mountains are 
several beautiful lakes. 

Mount Desert Island belongs to Maine. It is traversed by a range of 
thirteen granite peaks, one of these 2300 feet in height. It was settled by 
the French in 1608, who were driven away by the English in 161 3, and settled 
by them in 1661. Maine is dotted with numerous lakes, some of which are 
very beautiful. 

The coast of Maine was undoubtedly discovered by Scandinavian voy- 
agers late in the loth century. Possibly Verrazani cruised along its coasts in 
1524, and Cabot in 1498. Gomez, a Spanish navigator, saw its shores in 1525, 
and in 1556 Father Thevet, a Roman Catholic priest, sailed in sight of its 
shores. The first attempt to plant a European settlement on the coast of 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 415 

Maine was by De Monts in 1664, its shores having been trodden two years 
before by Bartholomew Gosnold. The French wintered near the site of Calais 
(1604-05) on the St. Croix River, and took possession of the river Kennebec. 
Captain Weymouth, an English navigator, was there in 1605, and kidnapped 
some of the natives; and in 1607 the Plymouth Company sent emigrants 
there to found a colony, but they did not remain long. They erected a fort 
and two or three buildings near the mouth of the Sagadahock River, on a 
small island. It is said that the colonists quarreled with the natives. The 
planters suffered much. Dissatisfied, they returned to England in 1608. 

In 1614 the famous Captain John Smith, in behalf of the Plymouth Com- 
pany, whose charter embraced the region between latitude 34° and 44° north, 




WILLIAM KING, FIRST GOVERNOR OF MAINE. 

landed on Muskegan Island, took possession of it, and thence explored the 
coast to Cape Cod. He gathered much information about the country and 
the inhabitants, and constructed a map of New England. In 162 1 the Com- 
pany granted to Sir William Alexander the country east of the St. Croix 
River, and established that stream as the eastern boundary of Maine. 

Muskegan Island was settled in 1622, and Saco the next year. In the 
same year Sir Ferdinando Gorges and Captain John Mason, having obtained 
a grant of the territory between the Merrimack and the Kennebec rivers, 
planted a colony at the mouth of the Piscataqua, the first permanent occupa- 
tion of the main land of Maine. (See New Hampshire^ 

In 1629 the Plymouth Company , foreseeing its dissolution inevitable, 
parcelled out the territory in small grants. In the course of three years the 



414 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

coast had been thus disposed of as far east as the Penobscot River. East of 
that river was claimed by the French, and was a subject of dispute a long 
time. 

The Plymouth Company dissolved in 1635, when Sir Ferdinando Gorges 
took the whole region between the Piscataqua and the Kennebec, received a 
formal charter for it from Charles L, in 1639, and named it the Province of 
Maine, in compliment to the Queen, who owned the Province of Maine in 
France. Gorges sent his nephew, William Gorges, as Governor of his domain, 
who established the seat of Government at Saco, where, indeed, there had been 
an organized Government since 1623, when Robert Gorges was Governor 
under the Plymouth Company. 

Gorges was appointed Governor-General of New England in 1639, and in 
1640 he sent his son Thomas to be his lieutenant, who established himself at 
Agamenticus (now York), which, in 1642, was incorporated a city called 
" Georgiana." There the first representative Government in Maine was estab- 
lished in 1640. On the death of Gorges in 1647, the Province, descending to 
his heirs, was placed under four jurisdictions. Massachusetts, fearing this 
sort of dismemberment of the colony might cause the fragments to fall into 
the hands of the French, made claim to the territory, under its charter. 

Many of the inhabitants of Maine preferred to be under the jurisdiction 
of Massachusetts, and in 1652 a large number of the freeholders took the oath 
of allegiance to the Bay State. The latter province then assumed supreme 
rule in Maine, and continued it until the restoration of the Stuarts, in 1660, 
when Charles H., on the petition of the heirs of Gorges, sent over a commis- 
sion to re-establish the authority of the grantees. For a long time Massa- 
chusetts resisted. Finally, in 1667, the Bay State purchased the interest of 
the claimants for $60,000. 

In 1674 the Dutch conquered the territory eastward of the Penobscot, 
including that of Acadia and Nova Scotia; and in 1676, Cornells Steinwyck. 
a leading citizen of New York, was appointed Governor of the acquired terri- 
tory by the Dutch West India Company. Meanwhile the ravages and hor- 
rors of King Philip's war had been experienced in the region of Maine. In 
the space of three months one hundred persons were massacred. 

Then came disputes about the claims of the Duke of York to country 
between the Kennebec and St. Croix rivers, which, in 1683, had been consti- 
tuted Cornwall county. The Duke sent Edmond Andros to rule that region, 
as Governor of New York and Maine. On the Duke's accession to the British 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 415 

throne as James 11. , he made Andros Viceroy of all New England. The New- 
England charters were declared void, and Andros ruled as a petty tyrant 
until the revolution of 1688, when the political status of the Bay State was 
restored. Thenceforth the history of Maine was identified with that of 
Massachusetts. 

The Province of Maine suffered much from hostile operations of the 
combined French and Indians. In 1667 the young Baron de Castine estab- 
lished a fortified trading house at the mouth of the Penobscot River, where 
he married the daughter of a Penobscot Indian chief, and exercised much 
influence over the barbarians in that region. He taught them the use of fire- 
arms; and after he was made the bitter enemy of the English by their act of 
pillaging his trading establishment, he often joined the French and Indians 
in their attacks on the north-eastern frontier. With 200 Indians he assisted 
Colonel Iberville in the capture of Fort Wiliam Henry, which the English 
had built at Pemaquid. 

One of the most active men in Maine toward the close of the 17th cen- 
tury was William Phipps, who was a native of the province, and who, by his 
own energy in maritime life, had acquired fortune and distinction. The King 
had knighted him. In the spring of 1690 he was placed in command of a 
naval force consisting of eight war vessels, that made a descent on Acadie and 
captured Fort Royal, now Annapolis. In the same year Phipps was in com- 
mand of a fleet of thirty-four vessels, manned by 20CXD New Englanders, that 
sailed for the St. Lawrence to assist in efforts to conquer Canada. Without 
charts or pilots he crawled cautiously around Acadie and up the St. Law- 
rence for about nine weeks. A swift Indian runner went from Pennaquid to 
Montreal in time to warn the French Governor of his design, and the latter 
was prepared to meet the hostile fleet on its arrival. The expedition was a 
failure. 

All through the colonial period, from the accession of William and Mary, 
until the Revolution, Maine suffered much from Indian forays, incited by the 
French on the eastern and northern borders. 

During the old war for independence the coast towns of Maine were 
harrassed by British cruisers. Falmouth (now Portland) was burned, and 
other towns were sorely smitten. 

After the Revolution there were frequent disputes between Massachu- 
setts and the " District of Maine," as it was called, the latter desiring a sepa- 
ration from the Bay State. Conventions to that end were held at Portland 



4i6 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

between 1784 and 1791, but nothing was accomplished until after the war of 
1812-15. During that war the coasts of Mairte were scenes of conflict 
between the Americans and British, especially in the region between Passa- 
maquoddy Bay and the Penobscot River. 

Commodore Hardy, in command of a British blockading squadron, 
captured Eastport, and this act was followed by the appearance of another 
squadron bearing 4000 British troops, led by Governor Sherbrooke of Nova 
Scotia. They captured Castine in Penobscot Bay, also Belfast, and then went 
up the Penobscot River to Hampden, a few miles below Bangor, to capture 
the American corvette /o/in Adams, which, caught in that stream, had gone 
up the river for safety. The militia gathered, but fled when the British 
landed at Hampden. The commander of the Adams burned her to prevent 
her falling into the hands of the enemy. The invaders plundered the inhabi- 
tants and destroyed much property, when they returned to the sea, captured 
Machias, and then sailed for Halifax. 

After the war the people of Maine again took measures to effect a sepa- 
ration from Massachusetts, and to have the district take a place as an 
independent State of the Union. Massachusetts was now willing, wishing to 
offset the governing power of the Southern States. The people finally 
adopted a State Constitution, and on March 15, 1820, Maine was admitted to 
the Union as a State, with William King as first Governor. 

For more than half a century the Governments of the United States and 
Great Britain were involved in a controversy concerning the eastern bound- 
ary of Maine, which the treaty of 1783 did not accurately define. The dis- 
pute was settled by treaty in 1842, each party making concessions. 

Maine was twice invaded by Confederates during the Civil War. On the 
night of June 29, 1863, the officers and crew of a Confederate privateer 
entered the harbor of Portland, captured the United States revenue cutter 
Caleb Cushing, and fled to sea with her, hotly pursued by two steamers 
manned by armed volunteers. Finding they could not escape w^ith the cutter, 
the Confederates blew her up, and, taking to their boats were soon made 
prisoners. At mid-day, July 18, 1864, some Confederates, led by a Missis- 
sippi Confederate Captain, came from St. John, New Brunswick, and entered 
Calais, to rob the bank there. Having been forewarned by the American 
consul at St. John, the authorities were prepared for their reception. Three 
of the parties were arrested, when the remainder fled. 

During the Civil War Maine contributed to the National army 71,558 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 417 

soldiers and sailors. Of these 8446 were killed in battle or died from wounds 
and sickness, and 6642 were mustered out for disabilities resulting from 
wounds or disease. 

In 1872-73 a colony of about 600 Swedes settled in Maine on 20,000 acres 
of land, on the Aroostook. They were aided by the State. They established 
schools, in which the chief study of the children is the English language, to 
fit them for citizenship. 

Maine is a very productive agricultural State. In 1880 it produced 
1,107,788 tons of hay, 8,000,000 bushels of potatoes, which are largely ex- 
ported; 2,205,575 bushels of oats, and a large yield of wheat and buckwheat. 
The great production of Maine is timber — also, of wood-work in various forms, 
and ship-building. It has extensive fisheries, and is the only State in the 
Union wherein lobster-packing is an industry. 

The estimated value of real and personal property in Maine, in 1886, was 
$235,978,716. The State debt was $7,405,557. It had 1013 miles of railroads 
in operation, which cost nearly $40,000,000. The foreign commerce ^ om 
Portland is quite extensive, and the coast-wise trade is large. 

In 1880 there were 214,056 children of school age in Maine, of whom 
149,827 were enrolled in public schools. Its total expenditure for public 
schools was $991,297. Its largest city is Portland, with about 34,000 popula- 
tion in 1880. Its capital, Augusta, had 8665. 

Maine is called " The Pine-tree State." 





(1764.) - 

Missouri, one of the Central States of the Mississippi Val- 
ley, lies between latitude 36° and 40 "30' north, and lon- 
gitude 89° 2' and 95° 44' west. It is wholly west of the 
Mississippi River, and embraces an area of 69,415 square 
miles. In 1880 it ranked fifth among the States in popu- 
lation and seventh in the value of its agricultural products. 
Its population was 2,168,380, of whom 145,554, including ninety-one Chinese 
and 113 Indians, were colored. On its northern border is the State of Iowa; 
on the east the States of Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee ; on the south 
Arkansas, and on the west the Indian Territory, Kansas and Nebraska. The 
Mississippi River washes its entire eastern shores. 

The Missouri River (which is really the Mississippi River), flowing from 
the north-west, divides the State into two unequal parts. The surface of the 
State, north of the Missouri River, is mostly level. South of that stream it 
is rolling, gradually rising in the south-west into a range of bold highlands, 
which extend across the State from north-east to south-west, with isolated 
peaks 500 to 1000 feet above their bases. 

Missouri was a part of the vast region of Louisiana, and was known as 
Upper Louisiana. Its soil was first trodden by Europeans when Marquette 
and Joliet visited it in 1673. La Salle's expedition became acquainted with 
it. French traders made their way thither, and in 17 19 they built Fort 
Orleans, at the mouth of the Osage River, about ten miles below Jefferson- 
ville, the present capital of the State. These adventurers discovered lead 
mines in the vicinity, and in 1720 began working them. The discovery 
brought many other adventurers, and little settlements were made at various 
points — at St. Louis, Cape Girardeau, Saint Genevieve, and other places in 
that region. 

By the treaty of Paris, in 1763, the whole vast territory passed into the 
possession of the English. In 1755, Genevieve, its oldest town, was founded; 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 419 

but the most important, permanent and successful settlement was begun in 
1764, when Saint Louis was founded. In 1762 a fur company was organized 
at New Orleans, for carrying on the fur trade with the western Indians. It 
was started by the Director General of Louisiana. A trading expedition was 
fitted out, and under the direction of Pierre Lagueste Laclede, the principal 
proprietor of the enterprise, it went to the Missouri region, and established 
its chief depot on the site of the city of Saint Louis, which name Laclede 
gave to that locality. There furs were gathered from the regions extending 
eastward to Mackinaw and westward to the Rocky Mountains. 

In 1775 St. Louis had become a famous depot of furs and a trading- 
station. It had then about 800 inhabitants; now (1888) its population is 



THOMAS H. BENTON, PROMINENT IN THE HISTORY OF MISSOURI. 

probably nearly 400,000. It felt a touch of war during the period of the 
Revolution. In 1780 a force of 1500 British and Indians from the lakes laid 
siege to it, and invested it for a week, killing nearly seventy of the inhabi- 
tants, when the brave George Rogers Clarke (see Illinois) came to its relief 
with a competent force, and drove the assailants away. 

Spain had taken possession of Louisiana, and retained it after the peace 
of 1783. The territory on the east banks of the Mississippi became the 
property of the United States, and citizens of the Republic crossed to the 
Spanish shore and built cabins there. The Spanish authorities forbade this 
trespass. This led to negotiations, which resulted in the free navigation of 
the Mississippi. Difficulties with the Spaniards continued. These were all 
ended by the purchase of Louisiana by the United States in 1803, when the 



420 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

territory was divided. When, in 1812, Louisiana was admitted into the 
Union as a State, the name of the Upper District was changed to " Missouri 
Territory. " Emigration had been flowing in, and at that time the Territory 
had a population of over 35,000. 

In 1817, when the population of Missouri was fully 60,000, the Territorial 
Legislature applied to Congress for leave to frame a State Constitution, 
preliminary to its admission into the Union as an independent State. Then 
began the most important debate on the subject of slavery ever before known 
in that body. 

On February 13, 18 19, a bill was introduced into Congress to e-nable the 
Territory to enter the Union, when James Tallmadge, of New York, moved 
to insert a clause prohibiting any further introduction of slaves within its 
domain, and granting freedom to the children of those already there on their 
attaining the age of twenty-five years. After a vehement debate, lasting 
three days, the resolution was adopted — eighty-seven to seventy-six. 

As a companion to the Missouri bill, another was presented (February 
16) for the organization of the Territory of Arkansas, to which a provision 
was added, that slavery should not thereafter be introduced into any territory 
of the Union north of 36° 30' north latitude, the northern boundary of the 
proposed Territory. In the spirit of compromise other propositions were 
made, which would give up to slavery the State of Missouri and all south of 
that Commonwealth. 

This partition policy was warmly opposed by members from each section 
of the Union. They argued that slavery was either right or wrong, and that 
there could be no compromise. Extreme doctrines and foolish threats were 
uttered on both sides. Threats of dissolution of the Union were freely made. 
There was much adroit management by the party leaders, who used great 
dexterity in trying to avoid a compromise, for one party insisted upon Mis- 
souri entering, if at all, as a free-labor State; while the other party insisted 
that it should enter as a slave-labor State. 

But compromise seemed to be the only door through which Missouri 
might enter. By adroit management a compromise bill, proposed by John 
W. Taylor of New York, was carried (March 2, 1820) by a vote of 134 against 
.42. John Randolph, of Virginia, denounced it as " dirty business," and gave 
to the northern members who voted for it the name of " dough-faces." Pres- 
ident Monroe hesitated to sign the bill, and the matter was allowed to go over 
until the next session. 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 421 

In February, 1821, Henry Clay moved a joint committee to consider the 
expediency of admitting Missouri into the Union; and if not expedient, 
what provision adapted to her actual condition ought to be adopted. Such 
committee was appointed, and acting upon its report a decision was finally 
reached by the adoption of a compromise (Feb. 27, 1 821) substantially as pro- 
posed by Mr. Taylor in 1819, namely, that in all territory north of 36° 30' 
(the southern boundary of the State of Missouri) slavery should not exist, but 
should be for ever prohibited north of that line. Missouri was admitted as a 
slave-labor State. 

In the later debates on the famous " Missouri Compromise," there was 
much angry feeling displayed. Unwise men of the North and the South 
uttered the cry of disunion. A member from Georgia said, prophetically: 
"'A fire has been kindled which all the waters of the ocean cannot put out, 
and which only seas of blood can extinguish." 

The " seas of blood " shed in the late Civil War did, alone, extinguish 
it. Missouri was admitted into the Union on August 10, 1821. One of the 
most distinguished citizens of that State was Thomas H. Benton, one of its 
first representatives in the U. S. Senate. He was an able and enlightened 
statesman. 

The Territory of Missouri was disturbed by the Indians of the upper 
Mississippi region, incited to hostilities by the British during the second war 
for independence (1812-15). They frequently committed depredations on 
the frontier settlements in Missouri. The people constructed several stock- 
aded forts for their protection. The Indians were supplied with new rifles 
and ammunition by the British. Some encounters occurred, in which the in- 
vading barbarians were generally worsted by the armed settlers 

From its entrance into the Union, Missouri rapidly advanced in popula- 
tion and wealth, until it became involved, through its political leaders, in the 
meshes of Secession and the horrors of Civil War. A State Convention was 
assembled at Jefferson City on February 28, 1861, and on the second day of 
its session it adjourned to Saint Louis, where it re-assembled on March 4, 
with Sterling Price as President. He had been elected a member of the 
Convention as an Unionist. He soon afterwards became one of the most 
active Confederate military leaders in that region of the Union. 

On the first day of the session, at Saint Louis, L. J. Glenn, an accredited 
commissioner from Georgia, was allowed to address the Convention. He 
urged the Missourians to join the Southern Confederacy; but public senti- 



422 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

ment at Saint Louis, in and out of the Convention, was not congenial with: 
the object of his mission. The population of the city was made up largely 
of New Englanders and Germans, who were loyal, while emigrants from the 
slave-labor States, especially from Virginia, composed the great body of the 
Secessionists. Glenn's remarks were greeted with hisses by spectators at the 
Convention, and he was ofificially informed that his mission was not agreeable. 
A Committee on " Federal Relations " reported against the Secession doc- 
trines, and made declarations of attachment to the Union. The report 
deplored any attempt to coerce the " seceding States " into submission, and 
the employment of the military force of the State to assist the National Gov- 
ernment. The Convention adopted the report, and adjourned to December 
following. 

C. F. Jackson, a co-worker with the Secessionists, had been inaugurated 
Governor of Missouri in January, 1861. As he could not mould the action of 
the Convention to acquiescence in his views, he labored to that end with the 
Legislature. Determined to give the Secessionists control of Saint Louis, the 
strong Union city and the chief depository of the fire-arms of the State, he- 
procured an act for the establishment of a metropolitan police in that city 
under five commissioners, to be appointed by the Governor. This was the first 
step towards measures which involved Missouri in the horrors of civil war. 

With the sanction of the Governor, an attempt was made in May by the 
Secessionists to seize the United States arsenal at Saint Louis, which was. 
guarded by 500 regular troops, under Captain Nathaniel Lyon, a loyal sol- 
dier. For weeks before the call of the President for troops, in April, 1861,, 
the Secessionists had been drilled in the use of fire-arms in a building in the 
city, for which purpose the Governor had furnished them with State arms^ 
They received commissions from him, and were sworn into the military ser- 
vice of the State. After that call they drilled openly. They were closely- 
watched by the Unionists, who also formed military companies and drilled in 
the use of fire-arms. The latter were denounced by the Secessionists as' 
" outlaws " preparing to make war upon Missouri. At the close of April the 
President ordered Captain Lyon to enroll them into the military service of 
the United States, not exceeding in number 1000 men. The Governor had' 
ordered militia companies to assemble near Saint Louis, and encamp for a. 
week. 

The militia were encamped in the suburbs of Saint Louis. Lyon's 
volunteers occupied the Arsenal grounds. He soon discovered that the 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 423 

Secessionist leaders, under the sanction of the Governor, were landing can- 
nons and mortars at the city, in boxes marked " marble." The Captain was 
satisfied that it was time for him to act with vigor. On May 9, by a quick 
movement, he surrounded the militia camp with a strong force and cannons, 
and demanded of the commander the immediate surrender of the men and 
munitions of war under him, giving him only thirty minutes to deliberate. 
An armed mob of Secessionists, hearing of this, rushed out of the city to help 
the militia. They were too late. The militia had surrendered, 1200 strong, 
with all their arms and ammunition. 

The Governor and Legislature made immediate preparations for war. 
Captain Lyon, commissioned a Brigadier-General, was made commander of 
the " Department of Missouri;" but the purse and the sword being in the 
hands of the Governor, the latter determined to wield the power of the State 
for the benefit of the Southern Confederacy. An oflficial proclamation, 
issued by the Lieutenant-Governor at the close of July, declared Missouri 
separated from the Union ; that the people were under the " military rule " of 
the " Confederate States," and that, by invitation of the Governor, General 
Pillow, of Tennessee, had already entered Missouri with troops. The Con- 
federate Congress at Richmond authorized the admission of Missouri as a 
member of the " Confederate States of America." During a greater part of 
the war, men claiming to represent Missouri accepted seats in the Confederate 
Congress. The Missouri Legislature passed an Ordinance of Secession on 
October 28. So Missouri became involved in the Civil War, which inflicted 
fearful miseries upon her people. 

A State Convention assembled at St. Louis on January 6, 1865, and 
framed a new State Constitution, which provided for the emancipation of the 
slaves. It was ratified by the people in June. In 1869 the Legislature rati- 
fied the Fifteenth ''.mendment of the National Constitution, and Missouri was 
re-admitted into the Union after a season of great sufTering. The State had 
furnished to the Union army during the war from its loyal citizens 108,773 
soldiers. 

Missouri is one of the great grain-growing States of the Union. In 1880 
it had 17,806 manufacturing establishments, in which $130,000 were invested, 
yielding products valued at over $300,000,000. There were 1,750,000 tons of 
coal mined in Missouri in 1880, and 95,000 tons of pig-iron were produced. 
In 1882 it had 42 11 miles of railways in operation, which, with equipments, 
cost $239,530,162. 



424 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 



The assessed valuation of taxable property in Missouri in 1880 was 529,- 
218,474. 

The State makes liberal provision for public instruction, expending for 
public schools, in 1880, $3,092,332. It then had 723,484 children of school 
age, of whom 486,000 were enrolled in the public schools. There were therv 
three normal schools in Missouri, and fourteen universities and colleges. 
Saint Louis is its largest city. Kansas city had 55,785 inhabitants in 1880; 
Jefferson city, its capital, had only 5,271. 

Missouri is an Indian word, signifying " Muddy Water," a term applied 
to its great river. 





(1685.) 

Arkansas, one of the South-western States of the Union and 

of the Mississippi Valley, lies between latitude 33° and 36° 

40' north, and longitude 89° 40' and 92° 42' west. Its area 

is 53,850 square miles, and it is embraced by the States of 

Missouri on the north ; Tennessee and Mississippi on the 

east, from which it is separated by the Mississippi River; 

Louisiana on the south, and Texas and the Indian Territory on the west. 

The population of Arkansas in 1880 was 802,525, of whom, including 195 

Indians and 133 Chinese, 210,994 were colored. 

The eastern part of Arkansas for about 100 miles back from the Missis- 
sippi, is low and flat, with lakes, bayous and swamps. The whole region is 
subject to overflow, excepting occasional bluffs. The Ozark mountains, en- 
tering the State from Missouri, form a low range of hills in the north-west 
part of the State, never exceeding 2000 feet in height. The Ouachita Hills 
in the west and the Black Hills in the north are the only other considerable 
elevations. The Red River, clustered with historic associations of the Civil 
War, flows through the south-western part of the State, and is navigable 
throughout its entire course within the Commonwealth. 

Arkansas was discovered by De Soto in 1541, who traversed the Gulf 
region from his entrance into Florida to the Mississippi River, which he found 
full to the brim. He and his followers, the latter reduced to a few, crossed 
that stream and landed near the site of Helena. Pushing westward, in a mad 
search for gold, he penetrated to the borders of the (present) Indian Terri- 
tory. After spending a year in that region "prospecting" for the precious 
metals, the Spaniards returned to the Mississippi, and at the mouth of the Red 
River De Soto died, and was buried in the turbid flood of the Father of 
Waters. 

Arkansas was next visited by Marquette and Joliet in 1673, who, at the 
mouth of the Arkansas River, learned that the Mississippi flowed into the 



426 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

Gulf of Mexico instead of the " South Sea," or Pacific Ocean, as had been 
conjectured. With this information they returned to the Lake region. 

Being a part of the vast French domain of Louisiana, Arkansas was 
early settled temporarily by French traders and adventurers at different 
points. Crozat, who received a grant of the whole domain early in the 
eighteenth century (see Z<??^wzrt;;z^), established a trading-post at Natchitoches, 
on the Red River; and John Law, the magnificent gambler and speculator, 
undertook to plant a colony of Germans on a tract of land twelve miles square 
•on the Arkansas River, 

After the admission of Louisiana into the Union, in 1812, Arkansas formed 
a part of the Missouri Territory, and so remained until 1819, when it was 




JOHN LAW, PKOMINEM- IN TilK HISTORY OF ARKANSAS. 

-erected into a separate Territory with its present name. The first Territorial 
Legislature convened in 1820 at Arkansas Post, on the Arkansas River, sixty 
miles from its mouth— a place settled by the French as a trading-post in 
1685. Not long afterwards the seat of Government was removed to Little 
Rock, the present capital of the State. 

The population of Arkansas had increased rapidly. In 1830 it numbered 
■over 30,000. A territorial Convention at Little Rock, in 1836, framed a 
State Constitution, and on June 15, that year, Arkansas was admitted into 
the Union as an independent State with James S, Conway as its first Governor. 
The people were prosperous and happy until the Secession movement in i860, 
put in motion by the political leaders in South Carolina and Georgia, dis- 
turbed the public mind in Arkansas and elsewhere. The people of that 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 427 

State were warmly attached to the Union ; but, unfortunately, the Governor 
and most of the political leaders were disloyal, and they spared no efforts 
to obtain the passage of an Ordinance of Secession. 

For the purpose of effecting a revolution, a State Convention of dele- 
gates assembled at the capital (Little Rock) on March 4, 1861. It was com- 
posed of seventy-five members, of whom forty were staunch Unionists, and 
it was evident that a Secession ordinance could not be passed. The friends 
of that measure then proposed a plan that seemed fair. A self-constituted 
committee reported to the Convention an ordinance providing for an election 
to be held on the first Monday in August, at which the legal voters of the 
State should decide by ballot for " Secession " " or Co-operation." If a 
majority should vote for " Secession," that fact should be considered as in- 
structions to the Convention at its next session to pass an ordinance to that 
effect ; if for " Co-operation," then measures were to be used, in conjunction 
with the border slave-labor States " yet in the Union," for the settlement of 
existing difficulties. 

The next session of the Convention was fixed for August 17. The above- 
named proposition seemed so fair, that it was agreed to by unanimous vote, 
when the Convention was adjourned, subject to the call of the President, 
:who was known as an Union man. 

Taking advantage of the excitement caused by the attack on Fort Sum- 
ter in April, and President Lincoln's call for troops to suppress the rising in- 
surrection, the Governor of Arkansas (Rector) and his disloyal associates 
adopted measures for arraying Arkansas among the seceding States. To the 
President's call upon Arkansas for one regiment. Governor Rector responded: 

" In answer to your requisition for troops from Arkansas to subjugate 
the Southern States, I have to say that none will be furnished. The demand 
is only adding insult to injury. The people of this Commonwealth are free- 
men, not slaves, and will defend, to the last extremity, their honor, their lives 
and their property against Northern mendacity and usurpation." 

These defiant words were followed by immediate concurrent action. 
In violation of the pledge of the Convention, that the whole matter should 
be determined by the people in August, the President of the Convention was 
induced by the Governor to call that body together on the 6th of May. 
Seventy delegates were present. An Ordinance of Secession, already pre- 
pared, was presented to it at three o'clock in the afternoon, when the hall of 
the House of Representatives, in which the meeting was held, was crowded 



428 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

by an excited multitude. It was moved that a vote on the Ordinance should 
be taken, without debate. 

The President, a " mild-mannered " man, evidently overawed by the aspect 
of the crowd before him, when the question was put, and decided in the nega- 
tive by a considerable majority, declared that it was passed. Then a vote on 
the Ordinance of Secession was taken, and a majority appeared against it, 
when the President, who seems to have become a plastic instrument in the 
hands of the Secessionists, immediately arose, and in the midst of the cheers 
of the people, vehemently urged the Unionists to change their votes to " aye " 
immediately. " It being evident," wrote an eye-witness, " that a large num- 
ber of the crowd in the room were prepared to compel them to do so," the 
terrified Unionists complied, with one exception — Isaac Murphy — who was 
compelled to fly for his life. In 1864 the Unionists of Arkansas rewarded. 
Murphy for his fidelity by electing him Governor of the State. 

In this way the Arkansas Ordinance of Secession was adopted by unanii- 
mous vote. Then the Convention authorized the Governor to call out 6o,cxxi 
men, if necessary, for military duty. The State was divided into two military 
divisions. The Convention also passed an ordinance confiscating all debts 
due from citizens of Arkansas to persons residing in free-labor States, and all 
the personal property belonging to such persons in Arkansas at the time of 
the passage of the Ordinance. 

Measures were immediately taken to attach to the Secession cause, by 
persuasion or coercion, the powerful Indian tribes residing in the Territory 
adjoining Arkansas, who were about 40,OCx3 in number. Jefferson Davis,. 
President of the Confederacy, ordered three regiments of these Indians to be 
recruited, and commissioned Albert Pike, a native of New England, but long 
a resident of Arkansas, to make a treaty with them to that effect. The three 
regiments were raised, and under Pike, who was commissioned a Brigadier- 
General, they fought the National troops at the battle of Pea Ridge, among 
the Ozark Mountains, in Arkansas. So it was that Arkansas was placed in. 
the attitude of an enemy of the Republic, of which it had been a constituent 
part only twenty-five years. 

On the 30th of October, 1863, a meeting of loyal citizens, represcnting- 
about twenty counties, was held at Fort Smith, to take measures for re-or- 
ganizing the State Government. In January following a Convention, composed 
of representatives of forty of the seventy-five counties in the State, assembled 
at Little Rock, and framed a loyal Constitution, which was ratified by a vote: 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 429 

of the people in March, 1864 Members of the Legislature were elected, and 
in April a State Government was organized. In 1867 military rule was estab- 
lished in Arkansas, which, with Mississippi, constituted a military district. 

On January 7, 1868, a new Constitution was framed by a Convention at 
Little Rock, which was ratified by a small majority in March. On June 22 
Congress declared Arkansas entitled to representation in that body, when the 
administration of the Government was transferred from the military to the 
civil authority. The people of the State had suffered much during the Civili 
War. 

The chief agricultural productions of Arkansas are cotton, Indian corn,, 
wheat, oats and tobacco. In 1880 it produced 22,295 tons of hay. The cot- 
ton crop that year yielded 608,256 bales. There were harvested 1,269,715 
bushels of wheat, 24,156,417 bushels of corn, 2,219,822 bushels of oats, and 
970,226 pounds of tobacco. The total value of the principal crops was $88,- 
000,000. Much live stock is raised in Arkansas. Its total value, in 1880, was 
estimated at $20,472,425. 

Arkansas is becoming a manufacturing State. In 1880 there were I200' 
manufacturing establishments, employing a capital of about $3,000,000. The 
value of the products was estimated at nearly $7,000,000. There were 
948 miles of railroads in operation in the State. 

The assessed valuation of the real and personal property in the State in. 
1880 was $86,349,354. It expended for public instruction that year $382,537. 
There were 2768 public schools, with 108,236 pupils. There were 237,000 
children of school age in the State, and there were five universities and col- 
leges and a number of normal schools. 

Arkansas is an Indian word, meaning " Bow of Smoking Waters." It has 
also been called " The Bear State," from the number of these animals found 
there formerly. Its largest town is Little Rock, the capital, which had a. 
population of 13,138 in i88o. 



(1670.) 




Michigan is one of the North Central States of the Union, 
and is divided by the Strait of Mackinaw into an upper 
and lower peninsula. The Upper Peninsula is bounded 
on the north by the dividing line between the United 
States and the British possessions ; on the south by Lake 
Huron, the Strait of Mackinaw, Lake Michigan, and the 
State of Wisconsin ; and on the north-west by Lake Superior. The eastern 
boundaries of the two peninsulas are the north-eastern channel of the Strait 
connecting Lake Superior and Lake Huron, the St. Clair River, the St. Clair 
Lake, the Detroit River and Lake Erie. The southern boundary of the 
Lower Peninsula is a part of the States of Ohio and Indiana, and of the 
western. Lake Michigan. 

The State is nearly surrounded by lakes, from which circumstance it 
derives its name — our Anglicized form of an Indian word which signifies the 
*' Lake Country." The State contains an area of 58,915 square miles, and a 
population, in 1880, of 1,636,937, of whom 22,377, including 7249 Indians, 
were colored. The Commonwealth lies between latitude 41° 42' and 48° 22' 
Jiorth, and longitude 82° 26' and 90° 30' west. 

The Southern Peninsula may be characterized as a vast undulating plain. 
The water-shed is nearer Lake Huron than Lake Michigan, and the country 
slopes gently toward both. The Upper Peninsula has a rugged and moun- 
tainous aspect, and abounds in vast mineral wealth. The climate of both sec- 
tions, tempered by the surrounding lakes, is less severe in winter than that of 
any other portion of the country in the same latitude. 

Michigan was discovered and first settled by French traders and mission- 
aries. So early as 1610 Detroit was visited by Frenchmen. In 1630 French 
missionaries established a station on Lake Huron, and in 1641 some Jesuits 
reached the Falls of St. Mary. In 1660 a mission station was founded on Lake 
Superior within the bounds of the Upper Peninsula. A mission was estab- 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 431 

lished at Sault-Ste.-Marie in 1668, by Marquette and other Jesuit fathers ; 
and in 1671 he founded another Jesuit mission on the main land in the Upper 
Peninsula, north of the island of Mackinaw, where he built a chapel and dedi- 
cated it to St, Ignatius. He also laid the foundations of a fort. 

The Jesuits built their first chapel on the soil of the Lower Peninsula, on 
a bay of Lake Huron. It was dedicated to St. Joseph, and they called it 
" the cradle of the church," These missionaries were so successful in their 
efforts, that nearly all the Hurons become converted to Christianity. 

The French Government, desirous of fostering the fur trade, sent soldiers 
in 1677 to garrison trading stations and to protect the missionaries; and the 




STEVENS THOMPSON MASON, FIRST GOVERNOR OF MICHIGAN. 

cross and the lilies of France were soon spread throughout a large portion of 
the valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi, south of the great lakes. 

In 1 701 Detroit was founded by a little French colony, led by the Sieur 
de la Motte Cordillac, who was appointed Governor of the community. 
They erected a fort called Pontchartrain, and from time to time the colony 
was increased by emigrants from Montreal and Quebec, 

When in 1760 Canada was conquered by the English, the latter took 
possession of the forts at Detroit, Mackinaw, and at other places in the 
French dominion, much to the disgust of the Indians,who had become attached 
to the French as allies in war, and their spiritual guides. They disliked the 
English because they had been their enemies. Among the barbarian leaders 
in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan was Pontiac, an Ottawa chief, who en- 
deavored to confederate the Indian tribes in an effort to exterminate the 



432 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

English. He said: "If the French must go, no other white nation shall 
■occupy our land." 

The fort at Detroit was garrisoned by a few English troops in 1762. 
Pontiac feigned friendship for the English and gained their confidence. 
Under the pretext of holding a friendly council with the commander of the 
fort, he entered that little fortress on a bright May morning in 1763, with 
about 300 followers, each having weapons concealed under his blanket. Hav- 
ing been warned of danger, the commander averted it that time by postpon- 
ing the council for a few days. When the barbarians retired the gates of the 
fort were closed against them, and for more than a year Pontiac laid siege to 
the fortress. 

At Fort Mackinaw similar treachery was practised with success. A 
company of ball-players seized the commander, who stood outside the fort 
watching their sport, when squaws furnished the Indians with hatchets, which 
they carried under their blankets. Then the Indians rushed through the open 
gate of the fort and murdered many of the soldiers. 

An unwise movement was made at the fort at Detroit in July. A force 
•of 240 men went out from the fort at night, and attempted to surprise Pon- 
tiac at his camp, not far north of the present city of Detroit. The wily chief 
was on the alert. He went out to meet his foes and furiously assailed them. 
They were compelled to make a precipitate retreat, leaving twenty of their 
comrades dead, and bearing away forty who were wounded. The commander 
of the English was slain, and his scalp was his slayer's trophy. 

Michigan, being included in the bounds of Canada, was not the scene of 
any stirring events during the old war for independence. Although it was 
claimed to be included in the territory ceded by Great Britain by the treaty 
of 1783, it was not finally surrendered until 1796. Then it was a part of the 
North-western Territory, established in 1787 (see Ohio). When this territory 
Avas divided, in 1800, the eastern portion, which included Michigan, was called 
Indiana Territory (see Ijidiatia), and General William Henry Harrison was 
appointed Governor. 

In 1805 Indiana Territory was divided, and Michigan was erected into a 
separate Territory. William Hull, a meritorious ofificerof the Revolution, was 
appointed Governor, and retained that position until 1812. Nineteen days 
before he entered upon his duties, Detroit was destroyed by fire. Two years 
afterwards a new town was laid out, on a handsome and extensive plan, ac- 
cording to which the present fine city was built. 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 433 

When, in June, 1812, the United States declared war against Great 
Britain, Governor Hull was commissioned a Brigadier-General, and put in 
chief command of the forces in the north-west. He was instructed to invade 
Canada, an undertaking which resulted in disaster to Michigan Territory. 
Hull doubted the policy of invasion and protested against it, but obeyed 
orders. 

Early in July, 1812, Hull crossed the Detroit River with his whole force, 
.and took possession of the western portion of Canada, with the intention of 
attacking Fort Maiden, eighteen miles below. Sir Isaac Brock, Governor of 
Upper Canada, hastened, with such forces as he could speedily gather, to 
repel the invasion. Hull was very cautious, and hesitated to move forward. 
This caution was increased by the news that a large force of British and In- 
dians had captured the fort on Mackinaw Island; also that Fort Dearborn, 
(the site of (present) Chicago, was menaced by hostile Indians. (See Illinois^ 

Brock arrived at Maiden on August 13. Tecumtha and his warriors were 
'On an island opposite that post. Brock held a conference with them on the 
following morning, and gave them pleasure by telling them that he had come 
to assist them in driving the Americans from their hunting grounds north of 
the Ohio. Meanwhile Hull, alarmed by the defeat of an escort of prisoners 
destined for the fort at Detroit, had abandoned Sandwich, recrossed the river 
and taken a position of defense at Detroit under the shelter of the fort. 

Brock, reinforced at Maiden, and joined by Tecumtha and his thousand 
dusky followers, marched to Sandwich, and there planted a battery of heavy 
guns, which, from that elevated shore, commanded the fort and town of 
Detroit. The American artillerists begged permission to open fire on the 
battery, and Captain Snelling asked permission to cross over in the night and 
capture the British works. Hull would not allow any demonstration against 
the enemy, and the latter, perceiving their advantage, prepared for an assault 
■on the American works. 

Hull had been deceived by letters, intended to be intercepted, showing 
large and immediate reinforcements coming to Brock's army from the north. 
The militia in that army had been dressed in the scarlet uniforms of the Brit- 
ish regulars, and were so displayed by marching and counter-marching that 
they appeared like a numerous and regularly disciplined army. Hemmed in 
on every side, as he thought, his provisions scarce, no prospects of receiving 
reinforcements and supplies from Ohio, the fort thronged with trembling 
women and children, and decrepit old men of the village and the surrounding 



434 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

country, who had fled to the fort for protection, Hull humanely determined! 
to surrender the fort rather than increase the danger of slaughter by the bar- 
barians, exasperated by a defense which might be futile. 

On August 15, Brock sent a summons to Hull for an immediate surrender 
of the post, in which was a covert threat of letting loose the bloodthirsty 
Indians in case of resistance. Hull's whole effective military force there did 
not exceed 1,000 men. He kept the flag that bore the summons waiting fully 
two hours, for his innate bravery and patriotism bade him refuse and fight, 
while his fear of dreadful consequences to his army and the people, bade him 
surrender. 

Hull's troops were confident of their ability to hold the fort and defeat 
the enemy, and Hull finally refused to surrender. Active preparations for 
defense were made. The British opened a cannonade and bombardment from 
their elevated camp, which was kept up until near midnight. The firing was 
returned with spirit. Early the next morning the British crossed the river 
and landed, without opposition, a little below the village, while Tecumtha 
and 700 warriors, who had crossed two miles below, took post in the woods 
on the left. Their right was protected by a war vessel in the river. 

The soldiers outside of the fort prepared to meet the foe. When the lat- 
ter had approached to within 500 yards of the American line, Hull sent an 
imperative order for his soldiers to retreat within the overcrowded fort. The 
infuriated soldiers reluctantly obeyed. While the enemy were preparing to 
storm the works, Hull, without consulting any one, hoisted a white flag. A 
capitulation was soon agreed upon. At noon on August 16, 181 2, the fort,, 
the garrison, and the Territory of Michigan were surrendered to the British, 
with arms of every kind, ammunition, stores, and an armed brig. 

This surrender produced intense indignation throughout the Republic, 
and the people of Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky flocked to the standard of 
General Harrison the next year, with a determination to recover Michigan, 
Four thousand Kentuckians under General Shelby joined Harrison. The 
gallant Commodore Perry, co-operating with him, gained a splendid victory 
on Lake Erie in September. The command of Lake Erie secured, Harrison, 
with a strong force, invaded Canada. Landing below Maiden, late in Septem- 
ber, he drove the British from that post and pursued them to the interior, 
where, near the banks of the Thames, on the 2d of October, he signally de- 
feated the enemy. Tecumtha was killed in that battle. 

This victory secured all that Hull had lost, and more. It bioke up the 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 435 

Indian confederacy in the north-west. " Such a victory," said a member of 
the House of Representatives in his place, " would have secured to a Roman 
general, in the last days of the Republic, the honors of a triumph." 

The public lands in Michigan were first offered for sale in 1818, from 
which time its main growth in population and wealth may be dated. Colonel 
Cass was appointed Governor after its recovery. In 1819 the Territory was 
authorized to send a delegate to Congress, In 1823 a Legislative Council 
of nine members was appointed by the President of the United States, from 
eighteen persons elected by the people of the Territory, and they and the 
Governor constituted the Government. A Constitution was adopted in 1835, 
a State Government was elected, and on June 15 that year Michigan was 
admitted to the Union, conditionally, as an independent State. It was not 
formally declared a State by act of Congre-is until January 26, 1837, The 
delay was occasioned by disputes with Ohio concerning the southern boundary 
of Michigan. Its admission in 1835 had been made on condition that it 
should accept the claims of Ohio. A new Constitution was framed and rati- 
fied in 1850. The seat of Government was removed from Detroit to Lansing 
in 1847. 

The action of Michigan was highly patriotic during the Civil War. It 
furnished to the National army 90,747 soldiers, of which number 14,823 per- 
ished in battle or by sickness. 

Michigan (especially its Lower Peninsula) is a famous agricultural State. 
In 1880 its husbandry produced 32,461,452 bushels of Indian corn; 35,532,543 
bushels of wheat; 18,190,793 bushels of oats; and 10,924,111 bushels of pota- 
toes. In wool it ranks third among the wool-producing States, 

Michigan is specially rich in minerals, the Upper Peninsula with copper 
and the Lower with coal. The copper mines near Lake Superior are among 
the richest in the world, the copper belt being 120 miles in length, and from 
two to six miles in width. The coal is bituminous. Salt of excellent quality 
is found near Saginaw Bay. 

Michigan is rich in livestock. In 1880 it had 378,778 horses; 891,631 
horned cattle ; 2,189,389 sheep ; and 965,000 swine. Its people are extensively 
engaged in manufactures, especially in products from timber. In 1880 it man- 
ufactured 12,425,385 bushels of salt, and its copper mmes yield annually over 
$9,000,000 in value. The total value of her manufactured products in 1880, 
was $150,715,000. Her lake fisheries are extensive. 

In 1880 there were 3607 miles of railroads in operation in Michigan, cost- 



436 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST 



ii^g $1 36,000,000. The assessed valuation of taxable property, real and personal, 
in 1 88 1, was $810,000,000. In 1880 the State expended for public schools $3,- 
112,468. There were 506,221 children of school age, of whom 362,489 were 
enrolled in the public schools. There were nine colleges and universities. 
Detroit is its largest city, having 133,269 inhabitants in 1880, its capital, 
Lansing, having 9779. 

Michigan has been nicknamed " The Wolverine State,"from the abundance 
formerly of wolverines, a small carnivorous animal of the glutton species. 






(1565,) 

Florida is mostly a vast peninsula between the Gulf of 
Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean, and projects farther 
south than any other State of the Republic. It lies be- 
tween 24° 30' and 31° north latitude, and 79° 48' and 87° 
38' west longitude. It embraces an area of 58,680 square 
miles. Its population in 1880 was 269,493, of whom 
126,888 were colored, including 180 Indians. On its northern borders lie the 
States of Georgia and Alabama ; on the south is the Gulf of Mexico and the 
Strait of Florida; on the east is the Atlantic Ocean; and on the west is the 
Gulf of Mexico and the Perdido River. 

The whole State of Florida is nearly level, with no elevation more than 
200 feet above the sea. Its southern half is only a few feet above tide-water. 
The land in Florida may be designated as high hummock, low hummock, 
savanna and pine lands. The high hummocks are timbered with live and 
other oaks, magnolias and laurel. On the low hummocks live and water oaks 
abound. The " Everglades " cover an area of 160 miles in length and sixty 
in breadth. They appear to be a vast, shallow lake, with innumerable islands 
of all sizes. The water is filled with long, rank grass, and the islands occa- 
sionally present a huge pine tree and a palmetto tree. The central portion 
of the peninsula is somewhat elevated, being a water-shed, and seldom attain- 
ing an altitude of more than 170 feet above the ocean. 

It is supposed by some that Florida was seen by Europeans before the 
year 1500; but the first known discoverer was John Ponce de Leon, an old 
Spaniard, Governor of the Island of Porto Rico, who, in the early spring of 
1 5 12, sailed northward in quest of a fabled fountain, the waters of which 
would transform old age into youth, and ugliness into beauty. The fra- 
grance of flowers on a west wind lured the navigators, and they landed on a 
beautiful shore on Easter Sunday, at the site of (present) St. Augustine. 
Partly on account of the profusion of blossoms, the hoary Spaniard called 



438 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

the place Florida, and penetrated its wilds in a fruitless search for the magic 
fountain. He had formally taken possession of the country in the name of 
his sovereign. In 15 14 he was made Governor of the " Island of Florida." 
He did not attempt to take possession until 1521, when he and his followers 
were driven back to their ships by hostile natives. The leader of the Castil- 
ians was slain. 

Attempts at settlement were made by other Spanish adventurers before 
1528, when Pamphilo Narvaez landed at Tampa Bay, with 440 men. Fol- 
lowing the cruel example of the Spaniards in Cuba, in their treatment of the 
barbarians, he aroused the fierce anger of those of Florida. He dreamed of 
finding cities burdened with gold, but he found little but exasperated ene- 



M. D. MOSLEY, FIRST GOVERNOR OF FLORIDA. 

mies. Treachery met his cruelty at every point. The swift arrows of the 
barbarians diminished the number of his followers daily, and he attempted 
to flee from the country with a remnant in boats. His men died of starva- 
tion, day after day, on the waters of the Gulf, and .finally a " norther " dis- 
persed his little flotilla, and Narvaez was never heard of afterwards. De 
Vaca, the "Secretary" of the expedition, was the only one who escaped and 
returned to Spain. 

De Soto explored Florida, thoroughly, in search of gold, and perished on 
the banks of the Mississippi in 1542 (see Arkansas). He did not plant a col- 
ony. That important act was performed by Admiral de Coligni of France, 
who, in 1562, sent a company of Huguenots, or French Protestants, to found 
an asylum from persecution in the wilds of America. Led by John Ribault, 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 439 

the immigrants, few in number, landed at the mouth of St. Mary's River, in 
Florida, and were kindly received by the natives. The French were delighted 
with everything they beheld— the climate, the beauty of the flowery country, 
birds in gay plumage and sweet song, and " people of the finest forms and 
kindest natures." They set up a stone column, and took possession of the 
country in the name of the King of France. A few day? later they sailed 
northward to the South Carolina coast. 

After the bitter Civil War in France, between the Protestants and 
E.oman Catholics, Coligni sent three ships, with emigrants, in the spring of 
1564, who planted a colony on the bank of the St. John's River, in Florida. 
There were too many " gentlemen," who would not soil their hands with 
labor. Finally, some of the accompanying soldiers and sailors, in two of the 
vessels, sailed for the West Indies and became pirates. Threatened with 
starvation, the remainder of the colonists had resolved to return to France 
when Ribault appeared with seven ships, laden with supplies and a fresh 
colony of men, women and children, at near the close of 1565. 

A Spanish naval expedition, under Menendez, sent to destroy the Hugue- 
nots, soon appeared on the coast. They proceeded to found a settlement 
and build a fort, which they named St. Augustine. Thence the Spaniards 
marched overland, and massacred a greater portion of the Huguenots on the 
St. John's. Some of them were hanged on trees, over whom was placed the 
inscription : 

"Not as Frenchmen, but as Lutherans." 

A fiery French Roman Catholic — De Gourges — proceeded to avenge this 
outrage. He sold his property to others, meaning to fit out an expedition 
to Florida. He arrived in the spring of 1568, and, joined by the natives, 
attacked the forts on the St. John's occupied by Spaniards. They were cap- 
tured and every Spaniard was slaughtered excepting a few, who were hanged 
on the same trees on which the Huguenots were suspended. Over them was 
placed the inscription : 

" Not as Spaniards and Mariners, but as Traitors, Robbers and 

Murderers." 

The Huguenot colony disappeared, but the Spaniards made a permanent 
settlement at St. Augustine. It remained the sole settlement in that region 
for more than a century, when, in 1696, Spaniards formed a settlement at 



440 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

Pensacola and one or two other places. The English, who laid claim to the 
north-western portion of the peninsula, made frequent inroads upon the 
Spanish settlements. 

In 1702 an expedition from South Carolina attacked Fort St. Mark, at 
Pensacola; and subsequently the Georgians, led by Oglethorpe, made war 
upon them there and at other places. (See Georgia?) 

By the treaty of Paris in 1763, Spain ceded the whole of Florida to Great 
Britain, in exchange for the Island of Cuba, which the latter had recently 
conquered. The territory was now divided into East and West Florida, the 
Appalachicola River being the dividing line. Settlers from South Carolina 
went into the territory, and emigrants from Italy, the Islands of Minorca and 
Majorca in the Mediterranean, and Greece, were induced to settle there. By 
these emigrants the colony of New Smyrna was founded by Dr. Trumbull, of 
Charleston, in 1767. They numbered about 1500. They were settled on a tract 
of 60,000 acres, about sixty miles south of St. Augustine, where they were 
engaged in the cultivation of indigo and the sugar-cane. Trumbull reduced 
them to slavery, and kept them in subjection for a while by troops, the Eng- 
lish Governor of the territory being his business partner. On the arrival of a 
new Governor, nine years after the founding of the settlement, the petition 
of the poor settlers was heard and heeded, when they were released from 
the cruel tyranny. Nearly two-thirds of the colonists had then perished. 
The survivors went to St. Augustine. 

During the old war for independence, the trade of the southern colonies 
was seriously interfered with by privateers fitted out in Florida by the Brit- 
ish, who also incited the Indians in that region to make war on the Americans. 
In 1778 the British General, Prevost, invaded Georgia from Florida, and cap- 
tured Savannah. The Spaniards invaded West Florida, and in May, 1781, 
seized Pensacola, and occupied a considerable portion of the province. 

By the treaty of 1783, Florida was retroceded to Spain, and the western 
boundary was defined, when a greater portion of the inhabitants emigrated 
to the United States. The cession of Louisiana by France to the United 
States in 1803, gave the latter a claim to the country west of the Perdido 
River, which now comprises the extreme southern end of Alabama. The 
United States Government took possession of it in 181 r, when some irritation 
ensued. 

In the second war for independence with Great Britain, the Spaniards at 
Pensacola favored the British, and allowed an expedition to be fitted out 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 441 

there against the Americans. They also encouraged the hostility of the 
Seminole-Creek nation against Americans. General Jackson led an army into 
Florida, without the advice of his tardy Government, and in November, 1814^ 
with 3000 troops, he captured Pensacola and the forts there. A British 
naval force in the harbor fled in haste, and the Creeks were alarmed and 
scattered. 

Pensacola was again taken by General Jackson in 18 18, with Fort St. 
Mark, but they were restored to Spain. Diplomatic negotiations resulted in 
the cession of Florida by Spain to the United States in February, 18 19, on 
the extinction of the various American claims for spoliation, for the satisfac- 
tion of which the United States agreed to pay to the claimants $5,000,000. 
The boundary between Florida and Louisiana was adjusted. There was great 
delay in the Spanish ratification of the treaty, and it did not take place until 
1 82 1, the ratified treaty being received by the President in February that 
year. 

Emigrants from the Southern States now flocked into Florida, and the Ter- 
ritory was organized in 1822 and begun to prosper, in spite of many obstacles. 
The powerful Seminole Indians, made up of two bands of the Creek nation, 
occupied the best lands in the Territory, and had fiercely resisted the white 
people from the beginning of their intrusion on the domain of the barbarians. 
The war made upon them by General Jackson, in 1818, had intensified their 
hatred of the white people, and in 1835 the Seminoles, guided by Micanopy, 
their chief sachem, and led by their principal chief, Osceola, began a distress- 
ing warfare upon the frontier settlements of Florida. 

The immediate cause of the outbreak was an attempt by the National 
Government to remove the Seminoles to the wilderness beyond the Mississippi 
River. In May, 1832, some of the Seminole and Creek chiefs, in council, agreed 
to emigrate. Other chiefs, and the great body of the nation, refused to com- 
ply with the terms of the treaty which had been made. 

In 1834 President Jackson sent a military force to Florida to make a 
forcible removal of the Seminoles, if necessary. Osceola, eloquent and brave, 
stirred up the nation to resistance. One day the insolent bearing and offen- 
sive words of Osceola caused the commander of the troops to put him in irons 
for a day. The dusky warrior's wounded pride called for vengeance, and a 
war begun which lasted about seven years. By bravery, skill, strategy, and 
treachery, Osceola overmatched United Sitates troops sent against him, and 
commanded by some of the best officers in the service. 



442 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

Osceola struck the first blow in December, 1835. With all the cunning 
of a Tecumtha, and the heroism of a Philip, he began the war by an act of 
perfidy. While professing loyalty to treaty stipulations, his followers were 
engaged in murdering the unsuspecting white inhabitants on the borders of 
the Everglades, which furnished a secure hiding-place for the Indians. Major 
Dade, with one hundred soldiers, on his way from Fort Brooke, at the head 
of Tampa Bay, to join another body of troops, fell into an ambuscade, when 
he and all his followers, excepting four, were massacred. The four men 
afterwards died from the effects of the encounter. On the same day, Osce- 
ola and a small war-party stealthily attacked the commanding general (Wiley 
Thomson) and five others, who were dining, and killed them all. Osceola 
scalped the General with his own hand. 

The Creeks helped their brethren, the Seminoles, by attacking white 
settlers within their own domain. Being successful, they extended theif 
forays into Georgia, attacking mail-carriers on horseback, stage-coaches on 
the land and steamboats on the rivers. They finally assaulted villages, and 
thousands of men, women and children were compelled to fly in terror from 
their homes. 

General Winfield Scott, then in command in the South, prosecuted the 
war against the Creeks with so much vigor, that they were speedily subdued ; 
and during the summer of 1836, thousands of their men removed to lands 
west of the Mississippi River. 

Hostilities with the Seminoles continued. Finally, in the spring of 1837, 
several chiefs appeared before the commander of the troops in Florida, and 
signed a treaty which was intended to secure peace and the departure of the 
Seminoles to the home prepared for them beyond the great river. The wily 
Osceola caused this treaty to be violated and the war was renewed. 

In October, 1837, Osceola and seventy warriors appeared at the camp of 
General Jesup, under the protection of a flag, to hold a friendly conference. 
Jesup determined no longer to trust the perfidious chief. The conference 
was held in a grove of magnolias, in a dark swamp. As the chief arose to 
speak, Jesup gave a signal, when two or three of the soldiers rushed forward, 
and, seizing Osceola, bound him with strong cords. He made no resistance, 
but several of his excited followers drew their gleaming hatchets from their 
belts. Jesup's troop restrained them, and they were dismissed. Osceola was 
sent a prisoner to Charleston, where he was confined in Fort Moultrie. 
There he died of fever in January, 1839. 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 443 

Although the capture of Osceola was a serious blow to the Seminoles, 
they continued to fight for their country under other leaders, notwithstand- 
ing almost 9,000 troops were in their territory at the close of 1839, but peace 
was not permanently secured until 1842, when the Seminoles were persuaded 
to emigrate to the country west of the Mississippi, The whole body of those 
remaining in Florida removed in 1858. 

On March 8, 1845, Florida was admitted into the Union as an indepen- 
dent State. The danger from Indian forays being removed, it quite rapidly 
grew in population and wealth, until the Secessionists of the Commonwealth 
plunged it into the vortex of Civil War in 1861, Its political leaders were 
among the earliest in the Union to make seditious utterances and perform 
disloyal acts. Her representatives in Congress were anxious for Secession, 
and forward in assumptions of sovereignty for their little State. 

A Convention was held at Tallahassee, the State capital, on January 3, 
1861. The members numbered 169, about one-third of whom were " Co- 
operationists " (see Mississippi). The Legislature of Florida, prepared to co- 
operate with the Convention, assembled at the same place on the 5th. On 
the loth the Convention adopted an Ordinance of Secession by a vote of 
sixty-two against seven. It was declared, in the preamble, that " all hopes of 
preserving the Union upon terms consistent with the safety and honor of the 
slave-holding States," had been " fully dissipated." It was also declared that 
by the ordinance Florida had become a " sovereign and independent nation." 

Though the State was declared " out of the Union," its representatives 
in Congress did not leave their seats there for some time afterwards. Their 
reason for remaining was avowed to be to prevent the passage, by their votes, 
of force, loan and volunteer bills, "which would put Mr. Lincoln in immedi- 
ate condition for hostilities; " also, by remaining in their places until the 4th 
of March, they " might keep the hands of Mr. Buchanan tied, and disable 
the Republicans from effecting any legislation which would strengthen 
the hands of the incoming administration." 

The Legislature authorized the issue of Treasury notes to the amount of 
$500,000, and defined treason against the State as holding of office under the 
National Government, and punishable with death. The Governor of the State 
(Perry) had already made arrangements, before the passage of the Ordinance 
of Secession, for the seizure of the forts, navy-yard at Pensacola, and other 
property of the United States, within the borders of Florida. The people of 
the Commonwealth suffered much during the war that ensued. 



444 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 

On July 13, 1865, William Marvin was appointed provisional Governor 
of Florida, by the President of the United States, and on the 28th of Octo- 
ber a State Convention assembled at Tallahassee and repealed the Ordinance 
of Secession. For a while the State was under military control. A new 
Constitution was ratified by the people in May, 1868; and after the adoption 
of the Fourteenth amendment to the National Constitution in June, Florida 
was re-admitted to the Union, which it had first entered as a State only 
twenty-three years before. 

Florida produces every kind of cereal, cotton, rice, sugar, potatoes and 
tobacco. Its chief fruit production is oranges, of which a vast quantity is 
raised. 

There were 550 miles of railroads in operation in Florida in 1880. The 
assessed valuation of real and personal property was $40,000,000. In 1880 
there were 31,477 pupils in average attendance on the public schools. 

The most populous town in Florida in 1880 was Key West, containing 
9890 inhabitants. Its capital (Tallahassee) had 2494. Florida is sometimes 
called " The Peninsula State." 





(1692.) 

^Altogether the largest in superficial area of any of the 
States is Texas, a south-western Commonwealth which 
was annexed to the Union in 1845. It lies between 
latitude 25° 15' and 36° 30' north, and longitude 93° 
27' and 106° 43' west. Its area is 265,780 square miles. 
On its northern border is the Indian Territory and New 
Mexico ; on the east is Arkansas and Louisiana; on the south-east is the Gulf 
of Mexico ; and on the south-west the Republic of Mexico, from which it is 
separated by the Rio Grande. The population of Texas in 1880 was 1,591,- 
749, of whom 394,512 were colored, including 992 Indians and 136 Chinese. 

Texas displays every variety of surface and soil. Stretching back from 
forty to sixty miles from the Gulf coast, there is a belt of low land, much of 
it barren, or productive mainly of thickets of cactus and other prickly shrubs. 
Beyond this is a "prairie belt," of rich, gently rolling land, extending 150 or 
200 miles further into the interior. In the west and north-west is a mountain 
region and a great table-land, the latter being in some places over 2000 feet 
above the sea. The mountain region in the west is composed of spurs of the 
Rocky Mountains. The great American Desert penetrates northern Texas 
fully sixty miles. 

La Salle (see Louisiana), having inadvertently passed the mouths of the 
Mississippi, whither he was bound on his return from France, with a company 
of emigrants, in 1684, landed at the entrance to Matagorda Bay. The emi- 
grants there debarked. The storeship containing most of the supplies was 
wrecked, and the unfaithful navigator in charge of the ships (four in number) 
deserted La Salle, leaving him only a small vessel. 

The emigrants cast up a defense, which La Salle called Fort St. Louis. 
They attempted to till the soil. The barbarians there were hostile, and killed 
some of the settlers. Others perished from disease and hardship. They made 



446 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

somfe explorations of the adjacent country. At the end of a year, of the col- 
onists, who numbered 280 on their arrival, only forty were living. 

Leaving one-half of these colonists, including women and children, La 
Salle, at the beginning of 1688, set out to return to Illinois, with fifteen com- 
panions. A revolt broke out among them, and they murdered La Salle and 
his nephew. Nearly all of those left at Fort St. Louis were massacred, and 
the survivors were made prisoners by Spaniards sent to drive out the French. 
So ended the first white settlement on the soil of Texas. 

In 1690 a Spanish Jesuit mission was established on the site of Fort St. 




J. PINKNKY HENDBR.SON, FIRST GOVERNOR OF TEXAS. 

Louis, and another was soon established at Nacogdoches. In 1691 Spanish 
troops were sent to protect the mission at Fort St. John, but the persistent 
hostility of the Indians, and menaces of starvation, caused the post to be 
abandoned in 1693. 

In 1714 the French again attempted to found settlements under the direc- 
tion of Crozat (see Louisiana). He sent Captain de St. Denis to effect a 
settlement on the Rio Grande. St. Denis was taken prisoner by the Gov- 
ernment of Coahuila, but, marrying a daughter of the commandant of a Span- 
ish mission, he was instrumental in introducing three Spanish missions into 
Texas. Twenty years afterward St. Denis removed a French colony from 
the Red River into Texas. The Spaniards protested, but without effect. 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 447 

The Spaniards were dominant in Texas. They gave it the name of 
" New Philippines," and appointed a Governor-General. The Indians per- 
sistently opposed the people of both nations who came among them, and 
slaughtered them, until, in 1765, there were not more than 700 white people 
in Texas. 

After the cession of Louisiana to the United States in 1803, contentions 
arose concerning its western boundary. These were amicably adjusted in 
1806 by General Wilkinson and the Spanish commander, who established the 
territory between the Sabine River and Arroya-Honda as neutral ground. 
In the same year revolutionary movements, incited by Aaron Burr, began 
in that region, and many skirmishes occurred, chiefly brought on by invasions 
of Americans. The Spanish lost in a conflict near San Antonio, in 181 3, about 
1000 men; in another conflict, the same year, a force of about 2500 Ameri- 
cans and revolted Mexicans perished. Only lOO of the whole party escaped. 
The Spaniards sought vengeance, and massacred about 700 peaceable citizens 
of San Antonio. So ended the first effort for Texan independence of Mexican 
rule. 

The Sabine River was established as an eastern boundary of Texas by a 
commission in 18 19. But dissatisfaction caused incessant disputes, and the 
territory was almost deserted. In 1820 Moses Austin, a New Englander, liv- 
ing in Missouri, received from the Spanish authorities of Mexico a grant of 
land in Texas. On his death his son, Stephen, received a confirmation of the 
grant in 1823, when emigrants from the United States flocked into Texas in 
great numbers. These were chiefly from the slave-labor States. A thousand 
families were soon there. The Spanish rule soon became so oppressive to 
the American colonists that, in 1827, some of them engaged in a revolution, 
and were compelled to flee to the United States. 

In 1830 Bustamente, who had made himself Dictator of Mexico, issued a 
decree forbidding the people of the United States to enter Texas as colonists. 
The American settlers in Texas then numbered about 20,000. Coahuila had 
been annexed to Texas. The Rio Grande separated them. A convention of 
the Americans, held in 1833, determined to separate from Coahuila. They 
prepared a State Constitution, and requested Santa Aila, then at the head of 
the Mexican Government, to admit them as a separate State of the Mexican 
Republic. Colonel Stephen F. Austin, representing the American colonists, 
went to the city of Mexico, where Santa Afia detained him until 1835, during 
which time, keeping the Texans quiet by promises of compliance with their 



448 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

desires, he prepared to occupy the country with his own troops. Perceiving 
this, the Texans created a Committee of Safety, which assumed governmental 
powers. 

The Texans now armed themselves and prepared for revolution. On 
October 2, 1835, the first skirmish between Texans and Mexicans occurred. 
Others followed. On November 9, a provisional Government was established 
by a delegate Convention called the " Consultation." A Governor and Lieu- 
tenant-Governor were appointed. At the same time Samuel Houston, of 
Tennessee, who had settled in Texas, was chosen Commander-in-chief of 
the Texan forces, and Austin was sent a commissioner to the United States. 
On December 10, San Antonio de Bexar was captured, and the entire Mexican 
force was driven out of Texas. On the 20th a Declaration of Independence 
was adopted and issued at Goliad by Captain Philip and others. 

Santa Afia, astonished by these rapid revolutionary movements, set out 
from Mexico with an army of 7500 men for the recovery of Texas. In Feb- 
ruary, 1834, he invested the Alamo, a strong fort near San Antonio, then gar- 
risoned by about 170 men, under Captain M. B. Travis. Four thousand 
Mexicans beleagured it for eleven days, when they carried it by storm, and 
on March 6 the whole garrison was murdered by order of Santa Afia, only 
one woman, a child, and a servant were saved. "Remember the Alamo!" 
was the Texan war-cry after that. The Mexicans had lost in the attack 
1600 men. 

On March i, a Convention issued a Declaration of Independence, and 
chose David G. Burnet provisional President. The garrison at Goliad were 
massacred in cold blood on the 27th, and successive defeats created a panic 
among the Texans. Houston, meanwhile, had fallen back to San Jacinto, 
where, with about 800 troops, he gave battle to about twice that number, led 
by Santa Afia in person, on April 21, 1836 Houston was successful. The 
defeated Mexicans fled in dismay. In the pursuit of them 630 were killed, 
208 were wounded, and 739 made prisoners. Among the latter was President 
Santa Afia, who had lost a leg. His force was annihilated. Texas had 
achieved its independence. 

In September, 1836, Samuel Houston was elected President of the new 
Republic, which adopted as its ensign a single star. In March, 1837, ^^^ 
United States acknowledged the independence of Texas, and it took its place 
among sovereign nations. Other governments soon afterwards acknowledged 
its independence. 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 449 

The people of the slave-holding States of the Union were anxious to have 
Texas annexed to the United States; and such, also, was a prevailing desire 
among the people of that little Republic. The proposition when formally- 
made, seven or eight years after the birth of the Texan Republic, was gener- 
ally opposed by the free-labor States, as it would increase the area and poli- 
tical strength of the slave power, and, probably, lead to war with Mexico. 
The matter was persisted in by the South, and, with the sanction of President 
Tyler, a treaty to that effect was signed at Washington on April 12, 1844. 
It was rejected by the Senate in June following. 

The project of annexation was presented at the next session of Congress, 
in the form of a joint resolution. It had been made a leading political ques- 
tion at the presidential election in the fall of 1844, when James K. Polk, 
known to be in favor of annexation, was elected President. The resolution 
was adopted on March i, 1845, ^^^ received the assent of President Tyler 
the next day. On the last day of his term of office he sent a message to the 
Texan Government, with a copy of the joint resolution of Congress in favor 
of annexation. This resolution was considered by a Convention in Texas, 
called for the purpose of framing a new State Constitution. That body ap- 
proved the measure, and on July 4, 1845, Texas was admitted into the Union 
as an independent State. 

Texas, the only real " sovereign State " which had entered the Union, 
became involved in the Secession movements at an early day. The venera- 
ble Governor Houston opposed these movements with all his might, but in 
vain, for an organization known as " Knights of the Golden Circle," pledged 
to effect disunion, wielded a powerful influence in that State. Among those 
knights were many members of the Texan Legislature, and active politicians 
all over the State. Sixty of these irresponsible persons, in January, 1861, 
called a State Convention to meet at Austin on the 28th of that month; and 
a single member of the Legislature actually issued a call for the assembling 
of that body at the same time and place. The Legislature, by a joint reso- 
lution, declared the Convention a legally constituted body. Governor Hous- 
ton protested against the assumption of any power by the Convention, except 
to refer the matter of Secession to the people. 

On the appointed day the Convention assembled in the hall of the House 
of Representatives, under the chief management of John H. Reagan, who 
became Postmaster-general of the Southern Confederacy. A commissioner 
from South Carolina was there to assist in the management. Not one half 



450 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

of the 122 counties in the State were represented. On the first of February, 
1861, an Ordinance of Secession was adopted by a vote of 166 against seven. 
Its tenor was similar to those adopted by other conventions. The Conven- 
tion abrogated, in the name of the people of Texas, the Ordinance of 
Annexation, and decreed that the Ordinance of Secession should be submitted 
to the people, but at a day so early that the people had no opportunity to 
discuss it. They appointed a Committee of Safety, and delegates to the 
General Convention at Montgomery, Alabama. 

The Committee of Safety was immediately organized, when it appointed 
two of its members commissioners to treat with General Twiggs, then in com- 
mand of National troops in Texas, for the surrender of his army, and the 
public property under his control to the authorities of Texas. This service 
Twiggs gladly performed. The Committee so managed the votes cast by 
the people on the Secession Ordinance, that there seemed to be fully 23,000 
majority in favor of it, when it is asserted, on competent authority, that a 
very large proportion of the people were opposed to it. Governor Houston, 
in an address to the people of his State, severely denounced what he called 
the " usurpation " of that Convention. 

The annexation of Texas led to a war with Mexico, begun in 1846, and 
ended by treaty in February, 1848, when Texas embraced an area of 376,163 
square miles. In 1850 that State ceded to the United States all territory 
beyond its present limits, on consideration of receiving $10,000,000 in bonds, 
with the proceeds of which the State debt was paid. 

In 1867 Texas and Louisiana were constituted a military district, and 
placed under military rule, under General Sheridan. On December 7, 1868, 
a State Convention adopted a Constitution, which was ratified by the people 
in 1869, and at the same time a Governor and Legislature were chosen. In 
February, 1870, the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments to the National 
Constitution were ratified by the Legislature, and on March 30 Congress 
decided that Texas was entitled to representation in that body. In April the 
military government was transferred to the civil authorities. 

The leading staple agricultural productions of Texas are cotton, corn 
and grass. It is also the most extensive cattle-raising State in the Union. 
In 1850 it had 805,606 horses; 132,447 mules and asses; 4,084,605 cattle; 2,- 
411,633 sheep; and 1,950,371 swine. Its cereal crops were Indian corn, 
29,065,172 bushels; wheat, 2,567,737 bushels; oats, 4,893,359 bushels; and 
much rye and barley. The cotton crop yielded 805,284 bales. 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 451 

Texas is becoming an extensive manufacturing State, especially of cotton 
textile fabrics. There were 5344 miles of railways in operation in the State 
in 1880, which cost $142,654,627. The assessed value of taxable property, real 
and personal, was in 1880, $303,202,424. 

The number of children of school age, from eight to fourteen years, in 
Texas in 1880, was 230,577, of whom 186,786 were enrolled in the public 
schools. Total expenditure for public instruction that year was $782,785. 

Texas, it is supposed, derives its name from an ancient tribe of Texas. 
Indians, who inhabited the Valley of the Rio Grande. The name is said to 
be the root of that of Tol-Tezas, Toltecs, Az-Tezas, Aztecs, etc. The com- 
monwealth is called " The Lone Star State." 





(1833.) 

One of the most fertile States of the Union is Iowa, which 
lies between the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, and lati- 
tude 40° 36' and 43° 30' north, and longitude 89° 5' and 
96° 31' west. It is a central State of the Upper Missis- 
sippi Valley. Its northern boundary is the State of Min- 
nesota; its eastern the States of Missouri and Illinois, from 
which it is separated by the Mississippi River; on the south by Missouri, and 
on the west by Nebraska and Dakota, from which it is separated by the Mis- 
souri River. The area of Iowa is 56,025 square miles. By the census of 
1880 it ranked ten among the States in population, the number of inhabitants 
then being 1,624,615, of whom 1005 were colored, including 466 Indians. 
The State census, taken in 1885, gave Iowa 1,754,000 inhabitants. In the 
value of its agricultural products it ranks fourth among the States. 

The face of Iowa may be designated as a fine, rolling country. Notwith- 
standing within the State is the great water-shed between the Mississippi 
and Missouri rivers, the highest land in the Commonwealth — Table Mound 
— does not rise more than 500 feet above the Gulf of Mexico. In the north- 
western part of the State is a rugged region called by the French " Coteau 
des Prairies." Its entire eastern border is washed by the Mississippi, and its 
entire western border is washed by the Missouri. The great water-shed is 
near the centre of the State. 

Iowa was originally a part of the vast region of Louisiana ceded to the 
United States in 1803 (see Louisiana). The first settlement there was made 
by a Frenchman named Julian Dubuque, who, in 1788, obtained a grant of a 
large tract of land, including the site of the present city of Dubuque, and the 
rural lands around it — one of the richest lead regions known. There Dubuque 
built a fort, worked the lead mines, and traded with Indians until his death, 
in 1 8 10, when his colony was driven away by the barbarians. Dubuque had 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 453 

married an Indian woman, had taught the natives how to work the lead 
mines, and had become a famous chief among them so early as the year 1800. 

After Dubuque's death the Indians abandoned the mines, and the region 
was not again occupied by white people until 1833, when the first permanent 
settlement on the present domain of Iowa was made. In 1830 some unau- 
thorized miners came to the Dubuque mineral lands to work them, but were 
restrained by a few United States troops, placed there by Captain Zachary 
Taylor, who was in command of a post at Prairie du Chien. The troops 
remained there until 1832, when the Black Hawk War broke out. That was 
originated in this wise : 

Hostilities between the Indian tribes in the North-west continually pre- 




ANSELL BRIGGS, FIRST GOVERNOR OF IOWA. 



vailed. The warlike Sioux or Dakotas occupied the country west of the 
Mississippi, in the region of Iowa. A party of Chippewas from the east side, 
"visiting Fort Snelling, on the west side, were killed or wounded by Sioux. 
The commander of the garrison captured four of the murderers and delivered 
them to the Chippewas, who instantly shot them. The exasperated Sioux 
thirsted for vengeance. The Sioux chief, Red Bird, and his companions, slew 
several white people. General Atkinson, in command in the Northwest, cap- 
tured the chief, who soon afterwards died in prison, when Black Hawk, a fiery 
chief of the Sacs and Foxes, in present Wisconsin, and an ally of the Sioux, 
at once began hostilities against the white people. 

Black Hawk crossed the Mississippi, when General Atkinson took the 



454 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

field against him. In July cholera seized the troops, and slew all but nine of 
the 208 of the United States force. After two severe battles the Indians 
were subdued, and Black Hawk was made a prisoner. (See Wisconsin.) 

Treaties were then made, by which the United States obtained large 
tracts of valuable lands from the Sacs and Foxes, as indemnity for the ex- 
pense of the war. The tract included a large part of (present) Iowa, extend- 
ing nearly 300 miles north of the Missouri River. It is known as the " Black 
Hawk Purchase." Very soon other lands were purchased, and the present 
limits of Iowa were cleared of Indian titles. 

In 1833 Burlington was founded, and Dubuque was re-inhabited by white 
people. In 1835, many members of the Society of Friends, or Quakers, emi- 
grated to Iowa, and settled the town of Salem. In 1834, all that part of the 
Missouri Territory north of the State of Missouri, and west of the Missis- 
sippi, was placed under the jurisdiction of Michigan. Wisconsin Territory 
was organized in 1836, and Iowa was made a district of it, with the seat of 
Government for the whole Territory fixed at Burlington. The district at 
that time contained a population of over 10,000. 

The Territory of Iowa was organized in 1838, and given a separate Gov- 
ernment. A flood of emigration had been flowing in, and at that time the 
Territory had a population of 23,000. Two years later there were 43,000 in- 
habitants there. This flood of emigration was chiefly from New England and 
New York. Now the Territorial Legislature made formal application to 
Congress for the admission of Iowa into the Union as a State. An enabling 
act was passed, and in October, 1844, a Convention framed a Constitution 
for the proposed State. 

On March 3, 1845, an act was passed by Congress for the admission of 
Iowa as a State, simultaneously with the State of Florida, but upon the con- 
dition that the people of the Commonwealth, at a subsequent election, should 
assent to a restriction of its limits, in conformity with the general area of 
other Western States. The people, by a majority of nearly 2000 votes, 
refused to agree to these restrictions, and Iowa remained a Territory until 
the following year. 

The people of Iowa', after mature deliberation and discussion, assented to 
the proposed restriction, and in January, 1846, the Legislature formally ex- 
pressed the acquiescence of the inhabitants. Congress then authorized them 
to assemble another Convention to frame a new Constitution. It was held 
in May. A Constitution then adopted was submitted to Congress, and ap- 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 455 

proved in June following, and on December 28th, 1846, Iowa became a State 
of the Great Republic with Ansell Briggs as its first Governor. 

Burlington had remained the capital of the Territory of Iowa until 1839, 
when it was removed to Iowa City, at the head of the navigable waters of the 
Iowa River. On the admission of the Territory as a State, the seat of Gov- 
ernment was removed (1857) to Fort Des Moines, on the Des Moines River, 
in Polk County, in the central southern part of the State, where it still remains. 

The Territory taken from Iowa by the restriction imposed by Congress 
ivas named Dakota. The first election was held in October, 1846, and the 
first meeting of the State Legislature took place in December, the same 
year. 

Iowa, lying west of the Mississippi River, with a population of almost 
700,000, and with a loyal administration, was quick to perceive the needs of 
the National Government in 1861, in its struggle then begun with its enemies, 
and was lavish in its aid. Its loyal Governor, Kirkwood, after the call of 
President Lincoln at the middle of April, for 75,000 men to suppress the 
rising rebellion, summoned the Legislature to meet in extraordinary session 
on May 15. In his message to that body the next day the Governor said: 

" In this emergency Iowa must not and does not occupy a doubtful posi- 
tion; for the Union as our fathers formed it, and for the Government they 
formed so wisely and so well, the people of Iowa are ready to pledge every 
fighting man in the State, and every dollar of her money and credit; and I 
have called you together in extraordinary session for the purpose of making 
that pledge formal and effective. 

********* 

" I feel assured the State can readily raise the means necessary to place 
her in a position consistent alike with her honor and her safety. Her territory, 
of great extent and of unsurpassed fertility, inviting and constantly receiv- 
ing a desirable emigration ; her population of nearly three-quarters of a mil- 
lion of intelligent, industrious, energetic and liberty-loving people; her very 
rapid past and prospective growth ; her present financial standing, having a 
debt of about one-quarter of a million dollars, unite to make her bonds among 
the most desirable investments which our country affords." 

These were brave words for the Governor of a State lying side by side 
with Missouri, a slave-labor State, whose Chief Magistrate and Legislature 
were then taking desperate measures to array that Commonwealth against 
the life of the Republic (see Missouri) ; while Nebraska, as yet a thinly popu- 



456 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 

lated territory, was its western neighbor, and little able to defend it from 
invasion. 

The Legislature of Iowa was as loyal and patriotic as its Governor, and 
earnestly co-operated with him. It voted a war loan of $600,000, and con- 
tracted a debt of $800,000. Secession movements were watched with much, 
solicitude by its rulers and people. When the President called for troops, 
Iowa was one of the earliest to respond. Her troops were among the earli- 
est in the field, and during the Civil War she furnished to the National army 
over 75,000 soldiers. More than 20,000 were furnished during the first year 
of the war. 

Iowa is a great grain-growing State, ranking second in the production of 
Indian corn. The census of 1880 showed the yield of corn that year to have 
been 275,014,247 bushels. There were 31,154,205 bushels of wheat, 50,610,591 
bushels of oats, 4,022,588 bushels of barley, and 1,518,605 bushels of rye, har- 
vested that year. Iowa has also an immense number of farm animals. In 
1880 it had 792,322 horses, 2,612,034 cattle, 455,359 sheep, and 6,034,316 
swine. The latter were about 1,000,000 in excess of any other State in the 
Union. It had attained a high rank for the production of butter and cheese. 

The assessed valuation of the taxable property in Iowa, in 1880, real and 
personal, was $398,671,251. Its debts, local and State, amounted to $7,962,- 

There were in Iowa in 1880 railroads in operation to the extent of 5235', 
miles, costing $89,236,500. Its expenditures and general provision for public 
instruction were liberal. In 1880 there were in the State 586,556 children of 
school age (from five to twenty-one years), of whom 426,000 were enrolled in 
the public schools. The State expended that year for its public schools 
$4,347,119. There is a State university at Iowa City, and a State Agricul- 
tural College, and there were, in 1880, seventeen other colleges. 

Iowa is an Indian word, signifying " The Beautiful Land." Its fictitious- 
name is " Hawkeye State," said to have been that of an Indian chief, who 
was a terror to voyagairs to its borders. 






(1669.) 

OuiSCONSiN, as the French spelled the name as pronounced 
by the Indians — Wees-kon-san — is one of the north-western 
States of the Mississippi Valley, lying between latitude 42"^ 
2f and 47° north, and longitude 86° 53' and 92° 53' west. 
It embraces an area of 56,040 square miles, and had a pop- 
ulation in 1880 of 1,315,497, of whom 5870 were colored, 
including 3161 Indians. It is bounded on the north by Lake Superior, and 
north-east by the Upper Peninsula of Michigan; on the east by Lake Michi- 
gan, south by Illinois, and west by Iowa and Minnesota, from which it is 
separated by the Mississippi River. 

The surface of Wisconsin is an elevated rolling prairie. It has two water- 
sheds — one in the north-west, where a ridge known as the Iron Hills, the high- 
est in the State, divides the waters flowing into Lake Superior from those 
flowing into the Mississippi River. Another ridge crosses the south central 
part of the State; and a third ridge traverses the south-eastern portion, and 
separates the waters flowing into Lake Michigan and Green Bay. The afflu- 
ents of the Mississippi drain four-fifths of the State. The greater part of the 
soil of the Commonwealth is arable land, and much of it is very fertile and 
easily cultivated. 

Wisconsin was the theatre of the early operations of French missionaries 
and traders in the region of the Great Lakes in the seventeenth century. So 
early as 1639 a small French settlement was begun on the site of the present 
town of Green Bay, at the southern extremity of Green Bay, an arm of Lake 
Michigan. It was soon afterwards broken up, but on the same spot Claude 
Jean Allonez, an ardent Jesuit missionary, after laboring several years among 
the natives on the borders of the St. Lawrence River, planted a missionary 
station. He was one of the earliest explorers of the Lake region. His mis- 
sion at Green Bay became a flourishing trading station also. The mission 
was for the conversion of the Fox, Miami, and other Indian tribes in (present) 



458 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST 



Wisconsin. Allonez sought to make the mission established by Marquette 
at Kaskaskia another permanent field of labor, but when the energetic La 
Salle, the bitter enemy of the Jesuits, appeared at Green Bay, in 1679, Allonez 
retired. (See Illinois^ 

La Salle arrived at Green Bay in the summer of 1679, where he tarried 
some time getting furs, with which to freight his vessel, the Griffon, on her 
return voyage, expecting to apply the proceeds to the payment of his credit- 
ors, who were seriously pressing him. The loss of the vessel and its valuable 
cargo embarrassed him, but his indomitable will and energy conquered all 
difficulties, and he afterwards discovered the mouth of the Mississippi and 
planted the first white colony in Texas. (See Texas.) 




NELSON DEWEY, FIRST GOVERNOR OF WISCONSIN. 



Wisconsin continued to be occupied by French missionaries and traders 
■until 1763, when the whole domain claimed by the French passed into the 
possession of the English, and the territory continued to be governed by the 
laws of Canada until after the Revolution, when, by the treaty of 1783, the 
region north-west of the Ohio was ceded to the new Republic of the United 
States. Soon afterwards Wisconsin became a part of the North-west Terri- 
tory, organized in 1787. 

The British Government gave up that region with great reluctance, and 
retained possession of military posts there until several years after it had 
made the treaty with the United States, which called for their surrender. 
There were other provisions of the treaty not complied with by the British, 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 459 

which caused great irritation in the pubHc mind in America. Finally, in April, 
1794, a motion was made in the lower House of Congress to suspend all com- 
mercial intercourse with Great Britain until the treaty should be fully exe- 
cuted on her part, especially in the surrender of the Western posts. 

This motion, if adopted, would inevitably lead to war. To avert such a 
calamity, President Washington sent John Jay to England as envoy extraor- 
dinary to arrange the matter amicably. It was done, and in 1796, or thirteen 
years after the signing of the treaty of peace, the western posts were given up 
to the United States. 

In 1809 Wisconsin was included in the Territory of Illinois, as it was then 
defined. It continued to form a part of that Territory until 1818, when 
Illinois entered the Union as an independent State. Then Wisconsin was 
placed under the jurisdiction of the Government of Michigan. 

In 1821, Rev. Eleazar Williams, the reputed Dauphin or crown-prince of 
France, arrived at Green Bay with a delegation of Oneida Indians, to treat 
with the barbarian chiefs of that region — the Winnebagoes and Menomonees 
— for a cession of lands whereon to make a home for themselves and others 
of their tribe who might join them. There Williams afterwards married a 
half-breed, and there he held his memorable interview with the Prince de 
Joinville, son of King Louis Philippe of France. At that interview the young 
Prince acknowledged Williams to be the Dauphin, and presented a document 
which he urged the missionary to sign. It was a formal abdication of the 
throne of France in favor of Louis Philippe, whose throne rested on an un- 
stable foundation. In 1822 a rude place called " Shanty Town," (in Brown 
County), not far from Green Bay, was made a seat of justice. A court-house 
and jail were erected, the first built between Lake Michigan and the Pacific 
Ocean. 

The settlers at Green Bay were chiefly French Canadians and half-breeds, 
who were simple in their habits, kind and polite in deportment, many of them 
cultivated in a remarkable degree, and presenting a society attractive to set- 
tlers. Wisconsin soon possessed many thriving settlements, planted by bold 
pioneers who bravely faced the dangers from Indian hostilities and the priva- 
tions of a home in the wilderness. 

The principal events in the history of the " Black Hawk War " occurred 
within the western limits of the present State of Wisconsin. This war has 
been alluded to in our sketch of the State of Iowa, in which some of its scenes 
were enacted. 



46o THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

On the 1st of August, 1832, a severe battle was fought at the Bad Axe 
River, between Black Hawk, the famous Sac chief, and 400 followers on the 
land, and United States troops who were on the steamer Warrior, which had 
been sent into the river. Twenty-three of the Indians were killed, but not 
one of the troops. After the fight the Warrior returned to Prairie du Chien. 

The contest was renewed the next morning by Black Hawk, who attacked 
troops under General Atkinson. The Indians were defeated and dispersed,, 
with a considerable loss of killed and wounded. Thirty-six of their women 
and children were made prisoners. Eight of the troops were killed, and 
seventy-seven were wounded. Black Hawk was pursued over the Wisconsin 
River, and at a strong position the fugitive chief made a stand with about 
3(X) men. After a sharp battle for three hours, Black Hawk, having lost, 
one-half of his warriors and his second in command, fled. He was finally 
captured by a party of friendly Winnebagoes, and delivered to General Steele 
at Prairie du Chien. 

Treaties were now made, and a large tract of land was ceded to the 
United States as indemnity. (See Iowa.) Black Hawk, his two sons, and six 
principal chiefs, were held as hostages. The chief and his sons were taken to 
Washington to visit the President of the United States, and then they were 
shown some of the principal cities at the North and East, to impress them 
with the greatness and power of the American people. 

In 1836 Michigan was erected into a State, and Wisconsin was organized, 
as a separate Territory. From that period may be reckoned the beginning 
of the rapid increase in population and wealth in Wisconsin. The first frame 
house had been built in the Territory in 1825. In 1827 the first printing was. 
done there and the first steamboat appeared on Lake Michigan. In 1831 the 
first cession of lands to the United States was made by the Indians. The 
first newspaper appeared in 1833. ^^ ^884 the first mail was carried from 
Green Bay to Chicago, then a little village, and the first survey of public lands, 
took place near Green Bay. The remaining lands of the Indians in Wiscon- 
sin were ceded to the United States, when it became a Territory, in 1836.. 
There were then fully 5000 white people in the Territory. A flood tide of 
emigration set in in 1838 and 1839, and in 1842 it was estimated that 60,000 
persons had settled in the Territory, which at first included a part of the 
Upper Peninsula of Michigan, the whole of Minnesota and Iowa, and that 
part of Dakota lying east of the Missouri and White Earth rivers. 

The first Territorial Legislature assembled at Belmont, in Iowa County.. 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 461 

In 1838 Madison, situated on an undulating isthmus between Lake Mendota 
and Lake Monona, 210 feet above Lake Michigan, was made the permanent 
seat of Government. At that time there was only one log-house at the future 
capital, where, in 1885, there was a population of over 12,000. 

A Convention held at Madison late in 1846 framed a State Constitution, 
which was approved by Congress, but rejected by the people. It was ratified 
by the people the next year; and on May 29, 1848, Wisconsin entered the 
Union as an independent State of the Republic. Nelson Dewey was chosen 
its first Governor. Its population then was about 300,000. In 1849 ^ portion 
of the State was taken to form a part of the Minnesota Territory. 

"When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Wisconsin contained about 800,- 
000 inhabitants, and in politics it was Republican by fully 20,000 majority. 
Its Governor, Alexander W. Randall, was thoroughly loyal ; and that State 
was among the first, in the North-west, to declare itself unalterably for the 
Union. The Legislature, with a large Republican majority in both branches, 
convened at Madison on the loth of January, 1861, when the Governor, in 
his message, said : 

" The signs of the times indicate, in my opinion, that there may arrive a 
contingency in the condition of the Government under which it may become 
necessary to respond to the call of the National Government for men and 
means to sustain the integrity of the Union, and thwart the designs of men 
engaged in an organized treason." 

That call came on April 15, when the Governor's Guard immediately 
volunteered, and volunteer companies formed in all parts of the State. An 
extraordinary session of the Legislature was called. It met in May. The 
Governor urged the immediate equipment of six regiments of volunteers, 
the purchase of cannons, and the appropriation of $1,000,000 for the purposes 
of the war. The Legislature responded heartily and fully, by authorizing 
the execution of the measures recommended by the Governor, and more. By 
the close of the year, W^isconsin had sent into the field 24,000 soldiers. The 
whole number of soldiers contributed to the National army by the State dur- 
ing the war was 96,118. 

Indian corn, oats and wheat are the three principal agricultural products 
of Wisconsin. The State census in 1885 showed that the produce of corn 
that year was 37,718,304 bushels; of oats, 43,047,416 bushels; and of wheat, 
21,033,000 bushels. It also produced 11,505,290 bushels of barley, 2,075,537 
bushels of rye, 465,443 bushels of buckwheat, 590,000 gallons of sorghum 



462 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 

molasses, and 20,594,625 pounds of tobacco. Of farm animals it had 398,132 
horses and mules, 1,543,899 cattle, 1,429,137 sheep, and 1,196,200 swine. The 
wool clip that year was 6,174,527 pounds. 

In 1880 Wisconsin had 7674 manufacturing establishments, employing a 
capital of $73,821,802, and yielding products to the value of $128,255,480. 
Thexe were in operation in the State, in 1884, 6310 miles of railroads, which 
cost $478,000,000. Several of these are trunk lines. The assessed valuation 
of taxable property in Wisconsin in 1885 was $488,139,614. The lake and 
river commerce of the State is quite extensive. 

There were 483,227 children of school age (four to twenty years) in Wis- 
consin in 1880, of whom 299,514 were enrolled in the public schools. The 
total expenditure for public schools that year was $2,163,345. There were 
eight universities and colleges in the State. 

Milwaukee is the commercial metropolis and the largest city in the State, 
its population in 1885 bein^ 158,509. The name of Wisconsin is of Indian 
derivation, and signifies " Wild, rushing Water." Such was the aboriginal 
name of the Wisconsin River, and was appropriate to that stream. It is 
sometimes called " The Badger State," from the great number of badgers 
formerly found there. 





(1769.) 

The largest of the Pacific States is California, lying be- 
tween latitude 32° 28' and 42° north, and longitude 114° 
30' and 124° 45' west. On its northern border is the 
State of Oregon ; on its eastern Nevada, and the Ter- 
ritory of Arizona; on the south is Southern California; 
and on the west it is washed by the waters of the Pacific 
Ocean — a coast line 700 miles in extent. The average width of California is 
about 200 miles. It contains an area of 158,360 square miles, and in 1880 
contained a population of 864,694, exclusive of tribal Indians, of whom 97,5 13 
were colored, including 75,132 Chinese, 86 Japanese, and 16,277 Indians. 
There are about 7300 tribal Indians in the State. 

The State of California embraces a most remarkable region of country^ 
its topography largely consisting of two mountain ranges, more than 100 miles 
apart, running through the whole length of the State from north-west to 
south-east, with a broad and mostly fertile valley lying between. The face of 
the country is generally very rugged, being largely covered with mountains. 
The Sierra Nevada, or Snowy Mountains, which bound the Great Valley 
of California on the east, is composed of a series of ranges, aggregating in 
width seventy miles. The high peaks are almost entirely covered with snow. 
One of them, Mount Whitney, rises to the height of 15,000 feet. The coast 
range, which bounds the valley on the west, also consists of a series of chains, 
collectively about forty miles in width, lying in confusion, and extending in 
Southern California across the State. One of the peaks. Mount Shasta, 
attains an altitude of 14,440 feet. 

Besides the Great Valley there are many smaller ones, some of them 
very fertile, others barren and made deadly by mephitic vapors. The most 
picturesque and famous of these valleys is the Yosemite. 

East of the Sierra Nevada is a series of lakes, which extend nearly the 
whole length of the State — some of them alkaline, others salt, and others 



464 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

pure and sweet water. One of the latter is Tahoe Lake, the deepest and most 
elevated sheet of water on the continent. In the south-eastern portion of the 
State are deep depressions, evidently the beds of lakes and estuaries of the 
ancient world, from 400 to 600 feet below the level of the sea. There are two 
important navigable rivers in the State, the Sacramento and San Joaquin, and 
numerous smaller ones. 

In the year 1542 Mendoza, Viceroy of Mexico, sent Rodriguez de Ca- 
brillo, a Portuguese navigator, in search of the " Strait of America," supposed 
to lead from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic. He sailed up the Pacific 
coast to latitude 44°, discovering the coast of California and a part of the 
Oregon coast. The Peninsula of Lower California was probably discovered 




PETER G. liURNETT, FIRST GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA. 

eight years earlier by Hernando de Grijalva, whom Cortez sent to the Pacific 
coast on an errand of discovery in 1534. There the earliest settlements in 
California — old California — were made in 1683. 

In 1578 Sir Francis Drake, while on a plundering expedition against the 
Spanish settlements on the west coast of South America, pushed northward 
to latitude 44°, and discovered the coasts of Upper California and Oregon. 
He entered the Bay of San Francisco, where he landed, and gave the name 
of New Albion, or New England, to the country. But he did not plant a 
settlement. That act was left for monks of the order of St. Francis to per- 
form nearly 200 years later, who founded a mission at San Diego, on the 
south-west corner of New or Upper California in 1768. These monks founded 
another mission on the site of San Francisco in 1776, and gave it that name. 

These Franciscans made their mission stations very comfortable. The 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 465 

buildings were made of adobe, or sun-dried blocks of clay. The habitations 
for the priests, the store-houses, mechanic-shops, offices, granaries, and places 
for the instruction of Indian youths, were all made commodious and comfort- 
able. Around these missions were soon clustered, in their conical-shaped 
huts, numerous Indians, sometimes numbering a few hundred, and at other 
times several thousands. At each mission were a few soldiers, furnished by 
the Spanish Government, as a protection against hostile Indians. 

These missions finally extended nearly all over the territory, and for 
many years the government of California, temporal and spiritual, was under 
the control of the monks of the Order of St. Francis. One mission was 
bounded by another. They did not require so much land for agriculture or 
pasturage, but they appropriated the whole, and persistently opposed the 
settlement of lands between the mission stations, by individuals. 

The general products of these missions were cattle, horses, sheep, Indian 
corn, beans, and peas. In the southern portion of the Territory they raised 
grapes and olives in abundance, made wine, and carried on a profitable trade 
>vith foreign vessels that came to their ports for hides and tallow. 

From the year 1800 to 1830, these missions were at the height of their 
prosperity. Each one was a mission principality, with its hundred thousand 
acres of land, and an average of 20,000 cattle. All the Indian population 
were subjects of the priests, tilling their lands for them, and reverencing 
them as almost demi-gods. The Mexican Government finally became jealous 
of them, as they rapidly increased in wealth and power, and in 1833 the 
authorities began a series of restrictive measures, which, in little over ten 
years, ruined the missions — the initial civilization of California. In 1845 
they were obliterated. Their property was sacrificed at auction sales. 

The policy of the priests, who held absolute sway, was to discourage 
immigration. The Bishop was the supreme civil, military, and religious ruler 
of the province. The inhabitants were gathered around forts, or presidios, 
or in villages {pueblos), which grew up amid the missions. There were four 
presidios in California, namely, at San Diego, Santa Barbara, Monterey, and 
San Francisco; and the chief villages were Los Angelos, San Jose, and Bran- 
ciforte. Later emigrants from the United States established one on the Bay 
of San Francisco, which has since grown into a magnificent city, containing 
fully 230,000 inhabitants. 

The revolution in Mexico in 1822 began working the decay of Spanish 
ecclesiastical power in California. When it was utterly exterminated, twenty 



466 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

years later, the Californians, restive under the Mexican yoke, made efforts to 
achieve their independence. Emigrants from the United States flocked into 
the territory. They were generally a hardy, enterprising and liberty-loving 
people. A quarrel broke out between them and the Mexican authorities in 
1846, and the Mexican commander attempted to expel the Americans from 
the province. 

Lieutenant-Colonel John C. Fremont, who had just explored the Sierra 
Nevadas, with about sixty men, was then at Monterey. He had been opposed 
by a Mexican force under General Castro. He now armed all of the Ameri- 
can settlers in the vicinity of San Francisco Bay. At Sonoma Pass they 
captured a Mexican post and garrison (June 15), with nine cannons and 25O' 
muskets, and then advanced upon Sonoma. There they defeated Castro and 
his troops. The Mexican authorities were driven out of that region of the 
country; and on July 5, 1846, the American-Californians proclaimed them- 
selves independent of Mexico, and placed Fremont at the head of public 
affairs. 

At this juncture Commodore Sloat, in command of the Pacific squadron^ 
bombarded and captured Monterey, and on the 9th Commodore Montgomery 
took possession of San Francisco. Commodore Stockton arrived on the 15th 
with news of the declaration of war against Mexico by the United States. In 
that war the command of the "Army of the West " was given to General 
Stephen W. Kearney, of New Jersey, with instructions to conquer New 
Mexico and California. 

After a march of 9CX) miles over the Great Plains and among the moun- 
tain ranges, Kearney arrived at Santa F^, the capital of New Mexico, without 
opposition. Having taken possession of the country, he pushed on toward 
California. He soon met an express from Stockton and Fremont, informing 
him that the conquest of California was already achieved. Kearney then 
sent the main body of his troops back to Santa F^, and with one hundred 
men pushed on to Los Angelos, near the Pacific coast, where he met Stock- 
ton and Fremont. With these gentlemen he shared in the honors of the im- 
portant events which finally completed the conquest and pacification of Cali- 
fornia. 

Fremont, the real conqueror and liberator of California, claimed the right 
to be Governor. He was supported by Stockton and the people. Kearney, 
his superior oflficer, denied his right, and at Monterey he assumed the oflfice 
of Governor himself, and proclaimed (February 8, 1847) the annexation of 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 467 

California to the United States. Fremont, who refused to obey General 
Kearney, was ordered to Washington to answer for his disobedience. He 
was deprived of his commission. President Polk, who regarded him as one 
of the best officers in the army, offered to restore it, but Fremont refused to 
accept it ever afterwards, and went to the wilderness again and engaged in 
explorations. 

By the terms of the treaty of peace, signed at Guadaloupe Hidalgo, on 
February 2, 1848, Mexico ceded the territory of California to the United 
States for the sum of $15,000,000. The white population was then about 15,- 
000. In the same year and month, gold was found on the property of Cap- 
tain John A. Sutter, who had emigrated to California in 1838. A man named 
Marshall, employed by Captain Sutter, while digging a mill-race five miles 
up the American fork of the Sacramento River, discovered the precious metal. 
It was soon afterwards found in other places, and during the summer of 1848 
rumors of the discovery reached the United States. The President alluded 
to it in his annual message to Congress in December, and early in 1849 thou- 
sands of gold-seekers were on their way to California. Around Cape Horn, 
across the Isthmus of Panama, and over the central plains and vast mountain 
ranges of the Continent, men went by hundreds, and gold was found in every 
direction in California. Gold-seekers from Europe and Asia flocked to the 
Pacific shores, and the dreams of the early Spanish adventurers of El Do- 
rado seemed to be realized. 

The emigration to California in 1849 was marvellous. At the end of that 
year nearly a quarter of a million of people had been added to the population. 
It is said that " a more reckless, daring, and dangerous body of men never 
collected in any part of the world." An organized government became an 
absolute necessity. The military Governor, General Riley, called a Conven- 
tion to meet at Monterey on September i, 1849, to consider the subject of a 
State Constitution. The Convention, after a session of six weeks, framed and 
adopted a Constitution. Before the meeting of the Convention, the people 
of California, in a delegate Convention at San Francisco, had voted against 
the admission of the slave-labor system into that country. The Constitution 
now adopted excluded that system from that inchoate State. When it was 
presented to Congress, and permission was asked for California to enter the 
Union as an independent State, a bitter discussion of the slavery question was 
aroused. 

Under this Constitution representatives in both Houses of Congress were 



468 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

elected. The people, gratefully remembering their liberator, John Charles 
Fremont, chose him and William M. Gwynn, their first representatives in the 
United States Senate, and Edward Gilbert and J. H. Wright, members of the 
House of Representatives, The Senators carried the Constitution with them 
to Washington, and in February, 1850, presented a petition for the admission 
of their State. 

The article forbidding slavery in the new State immediately elicited viru- 
lent debate, and a bitter feeling in the slave-labor States against the people 
of the free-labor States. The Union, so strong in the hearts of the whole 
people, was shaken to its centre. It was evident that some compromise 
should be effected for the sake of peace and harmony. Henry Clay, who was 
a peace-maker at the time of the Nullification movement, (see South Caro- 
lina), now offered (April, 1850) a joint resolution to appoint a committee of 
thirteen, composed of six Northern members and six Southern members, who 
•should choose the thirteenth, to consider the subject of a Territorial Govern- 
ment for California, New Mexico and Utah, with instructions to report a plan 
-of compromise embracing all the questions then arising out of the subject of 
slavery, Mr, Clay was made Chairman of the Committee. 

On the 8th of May, 1853, Mr. Clay presented a plan of compromise, con- 
sisting of a series of resolutions intended to be a pacification. The act pro- 
posed was called the " Omnibus Bill." It provided for the admission of Cali- 
fornia as a State; for fixing the boundary of Texas; declared the inexpedi- 
ency of abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia, so long as it existed 
in Maryland; proposed a fugitive slave law, and declared that Congress had 
no power to interfere with the inter-State slave trade. 

In July the Bill as a whole was rejected, excepting the proposition to es- 
tablish the Mormon Territory of Utah. Then the provisions of the Omnibus 
Bill were taken up separately. In August the Senate passed a bill for the 
admission of California as a free-labor State, and another for a Territorial 
Government for New Mexico. In September the famous Fugitive Slave law 
was adopted, and another for suppressing the slave-trade in the District of 
Columbia, All of these bills were adopted by the House of Representatives 
in September, and became laws by receiving the signature of President Fill- 
more, California was admitted as a State on September 9, 1850. Peter G. 
Burnett was chosen its first Governor. 

So lawless was a large class of the population of the State at this time, 
that nothing but the swift operations of " Vigilance Committees " could en- 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 469 

sure order and safety. The first " Vigilance Committee " at San Francisco 
was organized in 1851. These Committees finally assumed the powers and 
functions of judges and executioners, but under proper regulations. This 
tribunal became " a terror to evil-doers." Dangerous men of every kind were 
arrested, tried, hanged, transported or acquitted. In 1856 the Vigilance 
Committee of San Francisco surrendered its powers to the regularly consti- 
tuted civil authority. Then California pressed on in its bounding career of 
prosperity, until now it rivals some of the Atlantic States. Owing to its iso- 
lated position it did not furnish any troops to the National army during the 
Civil War. 

California has become one of the great agricultural States of the Union. 
In 1880 it produced 29,017,707 bushels of wheat; 2,000,000 bushels of Indian 
corn; 1,384,271 bushels of oats; 12,463,561 bushels of barley; 4,636,343 
bushels of potatoes, and 1,135,180 tons of hay. The total value of these 
agricultural crops, aside from its fruits, was over $100,000,000. These figures 
must now (1888) be materially increased to represent the actual productions 
of California. Grapes are cultivated to an enormous extent. In 1880 it had 
60,000,000 vines of choicest variety. Its raisins are the finest in the world. 
California can supply the whole American continent with grapes, raisins, and 
wine. 

The gold and silver mines of California have been marvellously produc- 
tive. From 1848 to 1880, the value of these metals, mined in that State, and 
deposited at the mints, was $703,736,520. Of this amount $702,058,970 was 
gold. Yet this statement, made by the Directors of the Mint, does not give 
the full amount of the production. It is estimated to have been, within that 
period (thirty-two years), in round numbers, $1,130,000,000. 

California is beginning to be an extensive manufacturing State. The 
total value of the products of its manufactures in 1880 was $116,218,973. It 
then had within its borders 2212 miles of railways in operation. These 
Iiave since been greatly increased. The assessed valuation of the real and 
personal property in the State was $584,578,000. 

There were, in 1880, about 157,000 children of school age enrolled in the 
public schools, for the support of which the State expended that year over 
$3,011,000. 

From the ports of San Francisco and San Diego, California carries on 
quite an extensive foreign commerce, while its inter-State revenue by rail- 
ways and steamers is still greater. Lines of river steamers ply between its 



470 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 



coast and Alaska and intermediate ports, the Mexican coast, Panama, Chili, 
and Sandwich Islands and Japan, 

The origin of the name of California is attributed to a Spanish romance^ 
said to have been published twenty-five years before Grijalva's discovery, in 
which is described an island " on the right of the Indies," abounding in gold 
and pearls, and peopled by black women without any men among them^ 
,whose queen was named Calafia. The country was called California. It also 
bears the name of *' The Golden State." 




to^^OT^ 




(1846.) 

Minnesota is one of the north-western States, at the 
head of the Mississippi Valley. It lies between lati- 
tude 43° 30' and 49° north, and longitude 89° 20' and 97° 
5' west. On the north it is bounded by British America ; 
on the east by Lake Superior and the State of Wiscon- 
sin ; south by Iowa, and west by the Territory of Da- 
kota. The area of Minnesota is estimated at 83,365 square miles. Its popu- 
lation (which is rapidly increasing) numbered 780,773 in 1880, of whom 3889, 
including 2300 Indians, were colored. In the State census of 1885 the popu- 
lation is recorded as 1,117,798, an increase of over 237,000 in five years. 

The face of the State of Minnesota is undulating. It has no mountain 
ranges, or even high hills, yet it is the water-shed of that part of the conti- 
nent of North America lying east of the Rocky Mountains, It lies about 
midway between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and between Hudson's Bay 
and the Gulf of Mexico — an elevated plateau, with " a system of lakes and 
rivers ample for an empire." It has a climate possessed by no other State. 
It is confidently asserted that it is "the healthiest in the world." Lake 
Itaska, in the northern part of the State, is the principal source of the Mis- 
sissippi, whence its waters flow a distance of 2400 miles to the Gulf of 
Mexico. It flows 797 miles through the State of Minnesota (measured by its 
sinuous course), 134 of which form its eastern boundary, and is navigable for 
large steamboats to St. Paul; and above the Falls of St. Anthony, 150 miles 
further, for smaller boats. 

Probably the first Europeans who trod the soil of Minnesota were two 
Huguenots, Sieur Groselliers and Sieur Radisson, who, in search of a north- 
west passage to China, passed through this region in 1659. Abandoning the 
•enterprise, they returned to Montreal the next year, with sixty canoes laden 
with skins of fur-bearing animals. The apparition of this richly freighted 
flotilla excited the Frenchmen at old Hochelaga, and many were induced to 



472 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

go to the wilderness beyond the Great Lakes in search of peltries. This was 
the beginning of the French fur-trade, which afterwards interfered with the 
Hudson's Bay Company. To secure the trade which the English were seeking 
to monopolize Daniel Greysolon du Luth, a native of Lyons, proceeded from 
Quebec in September, 1678, with twenty men, and formed a trading station at 
the extreme western end of Lake Superior, near where the city of Duluth, in 
Minnesota, now stands. That city, the site of which was a forest in 1869, was 
named in compliment to this enterprising Frenchman, it is supposed. Some say 
it was named for John du Luth, possibly a kinsman of the former, who, in 1769, 
built a hut there. Father Louis Hennepin, a Franciscan priest, accompanied 




HENRY H. SIHLEY, FIRST GOVERNOR OF MINNESOTA. 

La Salle and Di Tonti to the Lake country and beyond in 1678. La Salle 
left Hennepin a little below Peoria in Illinois, to prosecute discovery. With 
two others he descended the Illinois River to the Mississippi in a canoe, and 
ascended the great river to the Great Falls. At the beginning of this voyage 
Hennepin had invoked the aid of St. Anthony of Padua, and he gave his 
name to the great cataract of the Mississippi — the Falls of St. Anthony. 
There he carved the arms of France, on a huge beech tree. 

Hennepin and his companions were captured by a party of Sioux in the 
summer of 1680, but were rescued by Duluth and his men. Nicholas Perrot, 
who came to Canada from France, and became an Indian trader, was in Min- 
nesota with some associates in 1689. They built a fort on Lake Pepin, an ex- 
pansion of the Upper Mississippi, and formally took possession of the country 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 473 

in the name of Louis XIV. of France. Le Sueur built another fort in 1695 on 
an island in the Mississippi, just below the mouth of the St. Croix River, after 
which French fur-traders flocked into that region. Le Sueur built another 
fort on the Minnesota River in 1700, but no efforts were made to colonize the 
country by those traders or by the missionaries. 

Jonathan Carver, a native of Connecticut, who was a Captain in the 
French and Indian war, attempted to explore the vast region in America 
which was obtained from the French by the Treaty of Paris in 1763. He 
penetrated to the western extremity of Lake Superior in 1766, crossed the 
territory afterwards called Minnesota, and during two years traversed the 
great wilderness about 7000 miles. 

In 1783 Minnesota was a part of the region transferred, by treaty, that 
became a remote portion of the North-west Territory established in 1787. 
In the year 1800 that part of Minnesota lying east of the Mississippi was em- 
braced in the Territory of Indiana. In 1805 the United States Government 
purchased a tract of the Indians on the west side of the great river for mili- 
tary purposes, and there Fort Snelling was built (1819, 1820), garrisoned, and 
became a centre of active trade with the Indians. The National Congress, 
in 1 8 16, had passed a law for excluding foreigners from the fur-trade in that 
region. 

The traders with the Indians, accustomed to the unrestricted freedom of 
forest life, were quite unruly for a while, refusing to comply with the regula- 
tions of the civil and military governments which good order demanded, but 
the evil was remedied in time. 

In 1820 General Lewis Cass organized an expedition to explore portions 
of the Upper Mississippi. In this exploration he was engaged many months. 
Another exploring expedition traversed that region in 1821, led by Major S. H. 
Long, who had been engaged in explorations of the country between the 
Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains since 1818. The object of this latter 
exploration was the discovery of the source of the Mississippi River. For the 
same purpose, Henry R. Schoolcraft led a party of explorers, and succeeded 
in establishing the now unquestioned fact, that Lake Itaska is the principal 
source of that mighty stream. 

At that time a small colony of Swiss had settled near the site of 
present St. Paul, and some lumbering operations had begun by some 
Americans on the St. Croix River — by the " universal Yankees." Some 
parties from Maine, engaged in the lumber trade in their State, purchased 



474 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

extensive tracts of pine forest lands in Minnesota, and were content to wait 
until the necessary population of Iowa, Southern Minnesota, and other por- 
tions of the Upper Mississippi Valley, should create a demand for building 
purposes. Then they built saw-mills on the St. Croix, at the Falls of St. An- 
thony, at Minneapolis, and other points ; and very soon the forest, hitherto 
undisturbed by the workmen's axe, became resonant with the sounds of labor. 
From that time the growth of the lumber industry in Minnesota has been 
most marvellous. In 1838 the Indian titles to all lands east of the Mississippi 
were extinguished. The town of St. Paul was founded in 1842, a few miles 
below the Falls of St. Anthony, on the east bank of the Mississippi, at the 
head of navigation, and 2082 miles from its mouth. The first house was built 
there that year. The place derived its name from a Roman Catholic Chapel 
(St. Paul's) built there the year before for the use of converted Indians. A 
town plot was surveyed and recorded in 1847. Two years later it was incor- 
porated as a village, and it was made a city in 1849, ^^ which year Minnesota 
was created a Territory. At that time the population of the Territory was 
between four and five thousand. 

In 185 1 the Indian titles to the lands between the Mississippi and the 
Red River of the North, which washes a large portion of its western boun- 
dary, were extinguished. Emigration then flowed in with a steady and ever- 
increasing volume. At the end of eight years the number of inhabitants was 
1 50,000. 

In 1857 th^ people of Minnesota applied to Congress for its admission 
into the Union. On February 29 an enabling act for its admission was passed, 
and on May 11, 1858, it was admitted as an independent State of the Re- 
Dublic. Henry H. Sibley was chosen its first Governor. 

The Governor (Alexander Ramsay) and people of the young State were 
not only intensely patriotic, but very energetic in everything, and determined 
to uphold the Republic at all hazards when the spirit of Secession sought to 
undermine it. Its Legislature assembled at St. Paul on January 29, 1861, 
and passed a series of patriotic and judicious resolutions by an almost unani- 
mous vote. They declared that : 

1. They regarded Secession upon the part of any State as amounting di- 
rectly to revolution, and precipitating Civil War, with all its sad train of con- 
sequences. 

2. That the people of the State of Minnesota reiterate their inalienable 
devotion to the Constitution of the United States, and that, if its provisions 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 475 

were strictly observed, it would, in its own words, " insure domestic tran- 
quillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and 
secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and to posterity." 

3. That they had heard with astonishment and indignation of the recent 
outrages perpetrated at Charleston, South Carolina, firing upon an American 
steamer sailing under the flag of the United States; and expecting the Na- 
tional Government to make every possible effort to uphold the Union, and 
assert its supremacy; and to check "the work of rebellion and treason" they 
tendered to the President of the United States for that purpose whatever of 
men and money might be necessary, to the extent of their ability; and 

4. That they would " never consent or submit to the obstruction of the 
free navigation of the Mississippi River, from its source to its mouth, by any 
power hostile to the National Government." 

The President's call for 75,000 men at the middle of April was responded 
to with ardor by the people of the State. The troops of Minnesota were 
among the earliest and bravest in the field; and during the war that State 
furnished to the National army and navy 25,034 men. At the close of 1861 
the Governor, in his message, said: "The State now sends to the protection 
of the Union a greater number of men than the whole population in 1850." 

While Minnesota was thus nobly supporting the cause of the Republic, 
her own territory was invaded by treacherous barbarians. At midsummer, 
1862, bands of warlike Sioux — a nation who had ceded all their lands to the 
white people in Minnesota — made open war upon the frontier settlers of that 
State. It is not positively known by what special motives or under what 
particular influence they were impelled ; and the suspicion that they were in- 
cited to hostilities by emissaries of the Confederates, with a hope of thereby 
causing a large number of troops fighting the insurgents to be drawn away to 
defend their own homes, rests only upon conjecture. It is probable that the 
Sioux were impelled by their own savage and cowardly instincts to fall upon 
the defenseless settlers while so many of the stalwart men of the State were 
absent. A Sioux chief, named Little Crow, a most saintly-mannered savage 
in civilized costume, was the most conspicuous leader in the inauguration of 
this war, by the butcher>'^ of the white inhabitants at Yellow Medicine, New 
Ulm, and Cedar City, in Minnesota, in August and September, and at out- 
posts beyond. It is said that he was urged to these deeds against his better 
judgment, if not against his conscience. 

For nine days the fierce barbarians besieged Fort Ridgeley. They also 



476 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

besieged and once assaulted Fort Abercrombie ; and in that region they 
murdered about five hundred of the scattered inhabitants, who were mostly 
defenseless women and children. General H. H. Sibley was sent with a body 
of militia to suppress this outbreak of Indian malice and eagerness for 
plunder and blood, but he found the barbarians too numerous to allow them 
to suffer more than temporary disasters here and there. He attacked a large 
force of Indians under Little Crow at Wood Lake, and drove them into Da- 
kota, with a loss of 500 of their number made prisoners. These were tried 
by court-martial, and JCK) of them were found guilty and sentenced to be 
hanged. Their execution was stayed by the President of the United States. 
Finally, thirty-seven of them were hanged at Markota in February, 1863. 
They were the worst offenders. The remainder were released. 

But the " Sioux War " was not ended until the following summer, when 
General Pope took command of the Department, picketed the line of settle- 
ments in the far North-west with 2,000 soldiers, and took vigorous measures; 
to disperse hostile bands. In January, 1863, General Sibley moved westward 
from Fort Snelling, and General Sully went up the Missouri River to co- 
operate with him. Both fought and drove the barbarians at different places,, 
and finally scattered them among the wilds of the eastern spurs of the Rocky 
Mountains. Little Crow was shot while picking blackberries near Hutchin- 
son in Minnesota. His skeleton is preserved among the collections of the 
Minnesota Historical Society. 

The agricultural products of Minnesota are already immense. In 1880 
it was reckoned the fifth of the great wheat-growing States of the Union. 
In that year it produced 34,601,000 bushels of wheat, 14,831,741 bushels of 
Indian corn, 23,382,158 bushels of oats, and 2,972,965 bushels of barley. It 
had, in 1880, abundance of farm animals, 257,282 horses, 659,000 cattle, 267,598 
sheep, and 381,415 swine. Its wool clip was 1,352,124 pounds. 

Minnesota is not yet a heavy manufacturing State, excepting the lumber 
trade. In 1880 it had 3493 manufacturing establishments, which yielded that 
year products valued at $76,000,000. In the same year there were 472,280,- 
000 feet of lumber sawed. At Minneapolis and elsewhere, the manufacture 
of flour is an industry of enormous extent. 

The assessed valuation of real and personal property in Minnesota in 
1880 was $258,028,687. In 1882 it had 3391 miles of railroad in operation 
within its borders, which cost over $207,000,000. 

In 1880 Minnesota expended $1,622,919 for the support of its public 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 477 

schools, in which 180,248 children were enrolled. The whole number of chil- 
dren of school age (five to twenty-one years) was about 273,000. It had six 
universities and colleges. 

Minnesota is really one of the most beautiful States in the Union, and it 
promises to be one of the most populous and wealthy of the commonwealths 
of the Republic. It has no rival — scarcely a peer — as to climate and fertihty 
of soil. Its people seem to appreciate their blessings, and are assiduous in 
promoting not only their material interests, but intellectual and esthetic 
tastes. The city of St. Paul, its capital (having a population of about 112,000 
in 1885), has recently (1888) acquired a tract of fifty acres, beautifully located 
on the Mississippi, opposite the mouth of the Minnehaha River, to which it 
is proposed to add more land for the creation of a public park, thus securing 
a drive of more than seven miles in extent. The bank of the great river is 
here over 100 feet in height, and clothed with the primeval forest. Citizens 
of Minneapolis, a city of marvellous growth at the Falls of St. Anthony, ten 
miles above St. Paul, which had in 1885 a population of over 1 20,000, propose 
to secure the land immediately opposite, including the Falls of Minnehaha, 
and thence to the Mississippi, for a similar purpose. It has already beau- 
tiful parks and drives along the margin of the river. 

Minnesota is an Indian word, signifying " Sky-blue Water " — a name 
they gave to the St. Peter's River. It has been nicknamed " The Gopher 
State," from the abundance of burrowing animals found in that Common- 
wealth. 





(1811.) 

The most northerly of the Pacific States is Oregon, lying 
between latitude 42° and 46° 18' north, and longitude 
1 16° 33' and 124° 25' west. It embraces an area of 96,- 
030 square miles, and in 1880 contained a population of 
174,768, of whom 11,693 were colored, including 9510 
Chinese and 1694 Indians. It is bounded on the north 
by Washington Territory; on the east by Idaho Territory; on the south by 
the States of Nevada and California, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean. 

The Cascade and Blue ranges divide Oregon into three parts — Western, 
Middle and Eastern. The eastern part of the State is largely an elevated 
plateau, broken by mountain ranges. The Sierra Nevada Mountains, that 
traverse California, pass northward through Oregon ; but after entering the 
latter State they are known as the Cascade Mountains. Near the southern 
boundary of the State, a branch called the Blue Mountains extends north- 
easterly through the Commonwealth into Washington and Idaho territories. 
The coast range, which runs generally parallel with the ocean shore in Cali- 
fornia, in Oregon consists of a series of highlands, running at right angles 
with the shore, with valleys and rivers between these highlands running in 
the same direction. The Cascade Mountains are an average of no miles 
from the coast. Those of the Coast range are everywhere covered with for- 
ests to their summits. 

The highest peaks of the Cascades are Mount Hood, 11,225 feet; Mount 
Pitt, 11,000 feet; and Mount Jefferson, 10,200. 

Western Oregon generally presents arable and fertile lands. The 
Willamette Valley, between the Coast and Cascade ranges, is about 150 
miles in length and from thirty to forty miles in width, contains 5,000,000 
acres of mostly unusually productive land, and contains the principal towns 
of the State, and nearly two-thirds of its population. The largest river in 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 



479 



Oregon is the Columbia, the entrance to which — a large bay— furnishes the 
best harbor on the coast. 

The first known European visitor of the coast of Oregon was Francis 
Drake, the great English circumnavigator of the globe, who penetrated to 
latitude 44° in 1578. It is related that a German pilot in the employ of 
Spain, named De Tuca, went further up the coast. The Spanish Admiral, 
Fonta, visited the Oregon coast in 1640, and subsequent navigators made 
maps of that region as far north as latitude 55°. There is no account of 
the landing on these shores of any of these navigators. Spain claimed the 




SIR FRANCIS DRAKE, PROMINENT IN THE HISTORY OF OREGON. 

country as its own, and by treaty in 1790 she gave Great Britain some fishing 
and trading rights in the vicinity of Puget's Sound. 

On May 7, 1792, Captain Robert Gray, of Boston, in the ship Colmnbia, 
discovered a great river that emptied into the Pacific Ocean, and explored its 
lower portion. To this stream he gave the name of his ship. This (the 
Columbia) river forms a greater portion of the dividing line between Oregon 
and Washington Territory. 

After the purchase of Louisiana, Congress, on the suggestion of Presi- 
dent Jefferson, authorized an e.tploration of the country between the Missis- 
sippi and the Pacific Ocean. Mr. Jefferson had long desired such an explo- 



48o THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

ration. So early as 1792 he proposed it to the Philosophical Society of Paris, 
and Michaud, the traveller and botanist, actually undertook the task under 
the auspices of the French Government. The Revolution caused an aban- 
donment of the enterprise. 

President Jefferson now appointed Captain Merriwether Lewis, his 
private secretary, and William Clarke, brother of George Rogers Clarke (see 
Illinois), to lead an exploring party across the continent. They departed 
from St. Louis, with forty men, in May, 1804, going up the Missouri River 
to (present) Council Bluffs, where they held a council with the Indians. 
They pushed on to the Yellowstone River regions, discovered the hot springs 
and the " Garden of the Gods," and arrived at the great Falls of the Missouri 
in June the following year. They crossed the great mountain ranges, found 
the headwaters of the Columbia River, and passing down the Pacific slope of 
the mountains, arrived at the mouth of the Columbia at the middle of Novem- 
ber, 1805. They had passed through a great number of tribes of barbarians, the 
most friendly of whom were the Nez Perces. They wintered in sight of the 
Pacific Ocean, and retraced their steps in the spring of 1806. After an 
absence of two years and four months, they reached St. Louis September, 
1806, having solved a great geographical and topographical question. 

In the year 181 1 John Jacob Astor and others, who formed the Ameri- 
can Fur Company, established a trading-post and built a fort at the mouth of 
the Columbia River. Mr. Astor had been engaged in the fur trade since 
1784, and had accumulated a large fortune, for that period. He furnished 
all the capital for the American Fur Company. He aimed to establish and 
monopolize the fur trade between the Pacific coast of North America and 
China. The fort and trading house were intended to form the nucleus of a 
permanent colony of white people. The traders and their employees there 
formed the first white settlement planted on the soil of Oregon. 

In the summer of 1812 war broke out between the United States and 
Great Britain. It led to the ruin of the hopes of Mr. Astor and his associates, 
of forming a vast fur-trade establishment on the Pacific coast, for the British 
fur traders, their rivals, found in this exigency a fair pretext for making 
■efforts to obtain possession of Astoria, by force, if necessary. In the 
summer of 1813, representatives of the " British North-west Company " visited 
Astoria. News of the declaration of war had reached that post in January. 
The visitors now informed the agent of the " Pacific Fur Company," as Mr. 
Astor had named his association, that a privateer had been despatched from 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 481 

London, with instructions to seize Astoria, and all its possessions, it being 
reported to the Lords of the Admiralty that it was an important colony 
founded by the United States Government. These agents remained long, 
hoping for the arrival of the privateer, and deepening the impression of im- 
minent danger on the mind of the agent of the Pacific Fur Company. 

Expecting the arrival of this war-ship to seize the property at any 
moment, the agent finally listened favorably to a proposition by the repre- 
sentatives of the North-western Company, to buy the whole establishment. 
A bargain to that end was made, and the papers were signed, in October, 
181 3. The price was almost a nominal one. The shrewd visitors took pos- 
session immediately; and hauling down the American flag, ran up the British 
ensign, to the chagrin of every American resident there. The name of 
Astoria was temporarily changed to that of Fort George. The post soon 
afterwards passed into the possession of the Hudson's Bay Company. 

Having thus procured a lodgment on the Columbia River, the British 
claimed the whole country drained by its tributaries. The United States, by 
the acknowledged right of discovery, claimed that region as well as British 
Columbia, in which that river had its rise. A serious controversy then began 
between the United States and Great Britain. In 18 18 a treaty was concluded 
between the two nations, which provided that the citizens of each should 
jointly occupy the region for ten years. This was renewed for an indefinite 
period, each party having the right to end the agreement at any time by 
giving twelve months' notice to the other. 

Meanwhile emigration to Oregon from the United States began in 1832. 
In 1834 Dr. Marcus Whitman and Rev. Mr. Spaulding led a missionary 
colony into that region, and established stations 150 miles apart in the region 
of the Willamette River, the principal tributary of the Columbia River. 
These were the first permanent colonies properly of white people in Oregon. 
The wives of these missionaries were the first white women seen there, and 
their children were the first of European blood who breathed the air of 
Oregon. Other emigrants soon followed. 

In 1839 the United States gave Great Britain notice that it should end 
the operation of the treaty within a year, and preparations were made for the 
occupation of the country by American citizens. Then Great Britain claimed 
the whole territory to latitude 54° 40' north, which included the whole of 
Oregon and the present Washington Territory. The United States offered 
to compromise by drawing the northern line of its possessions along the 



482 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 

parallel of 49° 40'. The British persisted in their claim, and during the can- 
vass for President of the United States, in 1844, "Texas" ^^^ " Oregon "^ 
became a part of the battle-cry of the Democratic party. 

At the Democratic National Nominating Convention, held at Baltimore^ 
they had declared, by resolution, "that our title to the whole of the territory 
of Oregon is clear and unquestionable; that no portion of the same ought to 
be ceded to England or to any other power; and that the re-occupation of 
Oregon and the re-annexation of Texas [which was claimed as a part of 
Louisiana, purchased from France] at the earliest practicable period, are 
great American measures, which this committee recommend to the cordial 
support of the democracy of the Union." 

The former proposition was popular at the north, and the latter propo- 
sition was popular at the south. There was much excitement during the 
canvass, and the war-cry of " Fifty-four Forty, or Fight ! " was often heard 
until after the elections. A conservative and peaceful spirit finally prevailed, 
and a compromise with Great Britain was effected. The northern boundary 
of our Republic was fixed at the parallel of 49° by a treaty concluded in 1846. 
In 1848 Oregon was created a Territory, and including the present Territory 
of Washington; and in 1849 ^^^ ^^^^ Territorial Legislature met its first 
appointed Governor, Joseph Lane. George Abernethy had been provisional 
Governor from 1845 ^o 1849. 

In March, 1853, the Territory of Oregon was divided into two nearly 
equal parts, and the northern half was erected into a Territory named Wash- 
ington, which took all of the domain north of the Columbia River. The 
population of Oregon, which had been drawn upon by the attraction of 
California mines, had so rapidly increased that in 1857 a popular Convention 
framed a State Constitution, and application was made to Congress for its 
admission as a State. That act was performed on February 14, 1859, when 
John Whittaker was chosen the first Governor. 

As a rule the increase in population in Oregon has been rather tardy 
as compared with other Western States. Since the opening of railroads in 
the Willamette Valley, and the discovery of gold in Eastern Oregon, its 
growth has been much more rapid. Some of the Indian tribes, who are so 
numerous in Oregon, and were sometimes hostile, were a restraint upon im- 
migration. 

The last Indian war of much importance was that begun with the Modocs 
in 1872. These Indians had showed hostile feelings towards the white peo- 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 485 

pie for more than twenty years. A treaty had been made with them in 1864, 
providing for the setting apart for them 708,000 acres of land in Southern 
Oregon. Some of the tribe had settled there ; others, led by a chief known 
as " Captain Jack," a conspicuous warrior, preferred to remain where they 
were, but suddenly consented to go. Troubles with other Indians caused the 
Modocs to leave the reservation and begin anew their depredations. 

It was finally determined to compel the Modocs to go to their reserva- 
tion, when the Indians, under the immediate leadership of Captain Jack, 
broke out into open war late in 1872, and in one day eleven citizens were 
murdered. In January, 1873, a severe engagement occurred between the 
United States troops and the barbarians, who were strongly intrenched 
among rocks and vast lava-beds. All attempts to dislodge them were futile, 
and a peace commission was appointed to confer with them. That commis- 
sion reported (March 3, 1873) that the Modocs had agreed to surrender their 
arms and go to their reservation. 

On the following day the commissioners were compelled to report that 
the Indians had changed their minds, rejected all propositions for their 
removal, and refused to go to the reservation. Then another peace commis- 
sion was created, composed of General Canby, Rev. Dr. Thomas and others. 
They found the Modocs, under the influence of Captain Jack, very insolent 
in their bearing, and showing unmistakeable signs of hostile feeling. Finally, 
on the nth April, 1873, while the commissioners were engaged in a council 
with the barbarians, General Canby and Dr. Williams were murdered by 
them, the Indians stealing upon them in the most cowardly manner. 

This treachery caused the Government to make the most vigorous war 
upon the Modocs, and before June they were driven from the lava-beds and 
were completely subdued. Captain Jack, deserted by most of his followers, 
was finally captured, with several participants in the murders. The Chief 
and three of his companions were hanged. 

Oregon, especially its western portion, is a promising agricultural State. 
In 1880 it produced 7,480,000 bushels of wheat 4,385,650 bushels of oats, 920,- 
977 bushels of barley, 126,862 bushels of Indian corn, and considerable rye 
and buckwheat. It has numerous farm animals, and promises to be a great 
wool-growing State. In 1880 it had 124,107 horses, 416,242 cattle, 1,083,162 
sheep, and 156,222 swine. The wool-clip amounted to 5,718,526 pounds. 

The salmon fisheries of Oregon are very valuable. There were 1,615,761 
of these fishes packed, in 1880, valued at $2,786,000. Its manufactures are 



484 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 

becoming quite extensive. Its principal industry is flouring grain and in the 
works of lumber. In 1880 there were 1744 manufacturing establishments in 
Oregon, the value of the aggregate products of which was $13,342,130. 

In 1880 there were 689 miles of railroads in operation in Oregon, which 
cost $29,794,000. The assessed value of property in the State, real and per- 
sonal, was $52,522,000 in 1880. 

The number of children of school age in 1880 was 59,615, of whom 37,437 
were enrolled in the public schools. The State expended for public instruc- 
tion that year $314,885. There were eight universities or colleges. 

The name of Oregon is derived from the Spanish for " Wild Thyme," 
which is abundant there. 

The largest town in Oregon is Portland, on the Willamette River. In 
1880 it had 17,577 inhabitants. The next largest town is Astoria, which had 
a population of 2803. Salem its capital, had 2,538. 






(1861.) 

Geographically, Kansas is the Central State of the 
Union, and is one of the central tier of Western States. 
It lies between 37° and 40° north latitude, and 94° 38' 
and 102° west longitude. On the north it is bounded 
by Nebraska, on the east by Missouri, on the south by 
the Indian Territory, and on the west by Colorado. 
There are 38,080 square miles of area embraced within its territory, and its 
population, in 1880, was 996,096. With Kansas, as with all other States — the 
Western or newer ones especially — there should be great additions made to 
their census to be accurate now (1888). 

The whole State of Kansas slopes gently from the foot-hills of the Rocky 
Mountains, near its western border, to the Missouri River. The general sur- 
face is undulating prairie, or, more properly speaking, a rolling prairie. 
There are no mountains in the State, but there are high lands in almost 
every part, especially in its eastern portion and along its western border. 
Near the Arkansas River, in the south-west, is an elevation 3000 feet in 
height, and at another part in the western portion hills rise to over 3000 feet. 
The north-west border of the State is washed by the Missouri River. 

The portion of Kansas lying east of the looth meridian was a part of 
Louisiana, purchased from France, and was at first included in one of the 
territories into which that domain was divided. It seems to have been first 
visited by Europeans in 1719, when M. Du Tisne, a French officer, and some 
companions, explored a portion of it. Lewis and Clarke passed up the Mis- 
souri River on its borders in 1804, on their way through the wilderness to the 
Pacific Ocean (see Oregon). In 1827 the National Government built a fort 
on the Missouri River within the borders of Kansas, and named it Leaven- 
worth, around which a settlement grew; but until 1854 Kansas was mostly 
occupied by the barbarians. By the terms of the " Missouri Compromise " 



486 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST 



(see Missouri), made in 1820, slavery was forever forbidden in the territory 
north of the northern boundary of Missouri, or latitude 36° 30' north. 

The region of Kansas was early known to be one of great fertility. 
Across it was the great pathway to Utah, in the heart of the Continent, and 
to the Pacific Ocean. The people of the Eastern States, who had begun to 
settle there, became anxious that the Indian reservations that spread over its 
eastern part should be bought by the National Government and thrown open 
to white settlers. Petitions to that effect were presented to Congress, and in 
December, 1852, a bill was introduced into the House of Representatives to 
organize the " Territory of the Platte," by which indefinite name the Kansas; 
region was then distinguished. 




CHARLES ROBINSON, FIRST GOVERNOR OF KANSAS, 



This matter was referred to the Territorial Committee, which reported a 
bill in February, 1853, to organize the " Territory of Nebraska." These terri- 
tories were north of the prescribed limit of the slave system. Southern mem- 
bers of Congress at once endeavored to provide for opening the new Territory 
to their peculiar labor system. Those from the free-labor States opposed the 
movement. Finally, in January, 1854, Senator Douglas of Illinois introduced 
a bill for dividing the district into two Territories, to be called respectively 
Kansas and Nebraska. He also offered a bill to repeal the restrictive portion 
of the Missouri Compromise respecting slavery, and leave the question of 
free and slave labor to be decided by the settlers in those Territories. 

This movement created the most intense feeling of antagonism between 
the people of the free-labor and slave-labor States. The land was shaken by 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 487 

the most violent controversies in and out of Congress, After long and bitter 
discussions in both Houses of Congress, the bill was passed, and received the 
signature of President Pierce, on May 31, 1854. From that moment the 
question of Slavery agitated the nation until it was abolished in 1863. It was 
one of the most influential causes which brought about the formation of the 
Republican party the same year, the prime aim of which was the abolition or 
Testriction of the slave system. 

The vital question was now presented to the people of the United States 
— " Shall the domain of the Republic become the theatre of all Free labor or 
all Slave labor, with the corresponding civilization of such conditions as a 
consequence ?" This was a trumpet call to the " irrepressible conflict" 
between Freedom and Slavery, which now began. 

Kansas, being a more fertile territory than Nebraska, attracted the 
greater number of settlers, and it became the arena of the first great skir- 
mishes in the conflict. Believing that the Northern people, governed by their 
commercial interests, would yield to those of the South, as heretofore, the 
"former made no special efforts to settle the new territories; but political 
leaders in Missouri, having resolved that Kansas should be made a slave-labor 
State, when they saw immigrants flocking into Kansas from North and East, 
took vigorous measures to stay the tide of emigrants from these States. An 
Adventurous spirit was aroused in the North. The free-labor people acted at 
<once, and within a few months after the Territories were organized, the town 
of Lawrence was founded by one hundred families from New England. 
Other settlements were soon planted by a similar class of citizens, and the 
population rapidly increased. 

Alarmed by these movements, and perceiving that the new settlers, by 
.the ballot-box, would soon again acquire political domination in the new 
Territory, the friends of the slave-labor system proceeded to organize physi- 
<:al forces in Missouri to counteract this moral force. Combinations were 
formed under various names — " Social Band," " Friends of Society," " Blue 
Lodge," '* Sons of the South," and others. Already a powerful organization, 
under the title of the " Emigrant Aid Society," had been formed in Boston, 
"with the sanction of the Massachusetts Legislature, immediately after the 
passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill. The Southern societies above men- 
tioned were formed to counteract the New England association. 

At a meeting held at Westport, Missouri, early in July, 1854, it was re- 
solved that associated Missourians should be ready, at all times, to assist 



488 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

when called upon to do so by pro-slavery citizens of Kansas, in removing" 
from the Territory by force every person who should attempt to settle there 
under the auspices of the " Emigrant Aid Society." And now both parties 
proceeded to plant the seeds of their respective systems of civilization in the 
virgin soil of Kansas. They founded towns, the pro-slavery men establishing 
theirs in the vicinity of the Mississippi River. 

Immediately after the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill hundreds of 
Missourians went to Kansas, selected a tract of land and put a mortgage 
upon it, for the purpose of establishing a sort of pre-emption title to it. At 
a public meeting they adopted the following: 

''Resolved — That we will afford no protection to an abolitionist as a set- 
tler in this Territory; that we recognize the institution of Slavery as already- 
existing in the Territory, and advise slave-holders to introduce their property 
as soon as possible." 

A. H. Reeder having been appointed Governor of the Territory of Kan- 
sas by the President of the United States, he arrived there in October, 1854^ 
and took measures for the election of a Territorial Legislature. With the 
close of the election m the following March, the struggle for supremacy 
between the friends and opposers of the slave system began most vigorously. 
The pro-slavery men had an overwhelming majority in the Legislature, for 
hundreds of Missourians had gone over the border and voted. And when,, 
in November, 1854, a delegate to Congress was elected, several hundred of 
the nearly 2900 votes cast were put in by Missourians. At the election of 
the Legislature, 6218 votes were polled, while there were only 1410 legal 
voters in the Territory. Most of that excess was furnished by Missouri. 
Fully 1000 men came from Missouri, fully armed, with rifles, muskets and 
pistols, two cannons, and tents, who were led by Claiborne F. Jackson, who, 
as Governor of Missouri, in 1861, plunged that State into the vortex of Civil 
War. (See Missouri.) They encamped around the little town of Lawrence, 
and in like manner every poll in the Territory was controlled. 

A reign of terror now began in Kansas. All classes of men carried 
deadly weapons. The illegally chosen Legislature met at a point on the bor- 
der of Missouri, and proceeded to enact stringent laws for upholding slavery 
in the Territory. These Governor Reeder vetoed, and they were instantly 
passed over his veto. He became so obnoxious to the pro-slavery party that 
President Pierce removed him at their request, and sent another more ac- 
ceptable to them to fill his place. 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 489 

In September, 1855, the actual settlers in Kansas held a Convention, and 
resolved not to recognize the laws of the illegally constituted Legislature as. 
binding upon them. They refused to vote for a delegate to Congress at a 
Convention ordered by that Legislature, and they called a delegate Conven- 
tion to assemble at Topeka in October. At that Convention ex-Governor 
Reeder was elected to Congress by the legal voters. Another Convention 
assembled at the same place a few days later, framed a State Constitution, 
which made Kansas a free labor State, and asked for its admission to the 
Union as such. 

Now the strife between Freedom and Slavery was transferred to the 
National capital. Reeder made a contest for a seat in Congress with the del- 
egate chosen by the illegal votes. Meanwhile elections had been held in 
Kansas under the legally adopted new State Constitution. The pro-slavery 
party in the Territory became disheartened and perplexed, when President 
Pierce relieved and strengthened them by a message, on January 24, 1856, 
in which he declared that the action of the legal voters in Kansas in fram- 
ing a new Constitution was rebellion. 

All through the ensuing spring violence and bloodshed prevailed in the 
unhappy Territory. Perceiving that the actual settlers were determined to 
maintain their rights, armed men flocked into the Territory from the slave- 
labor States, and attempted to coerce the inhabitants into submission to the 
laws of the illegally chosen Legislature. Finally, Congress sent thither a 
committee of investigation. A majority reported, in July, 1856, that every 
election had been controlled by citizens of Missouri, and that the State Con- 
stitution was the choice of the majority of the people of Kansas. 

The canvass for a new President of the Republic soon absorbed the: 
attention of the nation, and Kansas had peace, for a while. James Buch- 
anan, the Democratic candidate, was elected. When he took the chair of 
state, he favored the pro-slavery party, and his strong support gave them 
renewed strength in Kansas. The newly formed Republican party came to 
the aid of the anti-slavery people there, and the opposing parties worked 
with great energy for the admission of Kansas as a State, but with opposite 
ends in view. 

Early in September, 1857, the pro-slavery party, in Convention at 
Lecompton, framed a State Constitution, which contained a clause providing 
that the rights of property in slaves now in the Territory " shall in no man- 
ner be interfered with," and forbade any amendments of the instrument until 



490 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

1864. It was submitted to the votes of the people in December, but by the 
terms of an election law, passed by the illegally chosen Legislature, no one 
might vote against that Constitution. The vote must be for " The Constitu- 
tion with Slavery," or " The Constitution without Slavery." In either case a 
Constitution that cherished and perpetuated slavery would be voted for. 

At an election for a Territorial Legislature, meanwhile, the friends of 
free labor had been successful. They had chosen their delegate to a seat in 
Congress. The legally elected Legislature ordered the Lecompton Constitu- 
tion to be submitted to the people for adoption or rejection, when it was 
rejected by over 10,000 majority. Notwithstanding this expression of the 
popular will, the President sent the rejected Constitution to Congress, with a 
message, in which he recommended its acceptance and ratification, and, 
referring to an opinion expressed by Chief Justice Taney, said : 

" It has been solemnly adjudged by the highest tribunal known to our 
laws, that slavery exists in Kansas by virtue of the Constitution of the 
United States. Kansas is, therefore, at this moment, as much a slave State 
as Georgia or South Carolina." 

The Senate of the United States accepted the Lecompton Constitution, 
but the House of Representatives decided that it should be again submitted 
to the legal voters of Kansas. It was done, and it was rejected by over 
10,000 majority. The political power in Kansas was now in the custody of 
the friends of Freedom, but they had to endure a further struggle to main- 
tain and exercise it. 

Early in April, 1856, armed men from Southern States, led by a colonel 
of militia, arrived in Kansas and were taken into the pay of the Government 
by the United States Marshal, who armed them with Government muskets. 
They besieged Lawrence in May, when the inhabitants, under a promise of 
safety to persons and property, were induced to give up their arms to the 
Sheriff. The invaders immediately entered the defenseless town, destroyed 
a printing-oflice and a hotel, and plundered dwellings and stores. Elsewhere 
the free-labor men, furnished with arms from the free-labor States, were 
forced into bloody collisions at several places. Emigrants from free-labor 
States passing through Missouri were turned back by armed parties. In 
August the acting Governor declared the Territory of Kansas in a state of 
rebellion. He, with a notorious invader from Missouri, attacked Ossawato- 
mie, where several persons were killed and wounded and thirty houses were 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 491 

burned. The place was defended by a small band under the (afterwards) 
famous John Brown. 

This reign of lawlessness and violence was checked by the new Governor, 
J. W. Geary, who, in September, ordered all armed men in the Territory to 
lay down their weapons. In defiance of this order, about 2000 Mis- 
sourians, led by a member of the Missouri Legislature, marched to attack 
Lawrence, but the Governor, with United States troops, persuaded them to 
desist. At the close of the year peace was restored to Kansas. Lawrence 
had been twice besieged, and Potawatomie, Ossawatomie, and Leavenworth 
had been partially destroyed. Four Constitutions had been successively 
voted upon in the space of four years. 

The present (1888) Constitution of Kansas, adopted by a Convention at 
Wyandotte July 5, 1859, was ratified on October 4, the same year. On 
January 29, 1861, the Territory was admitted into the Union as a Free-labor 
State, with Charles Robinson as its first Governor. It was zealously loyal to 
the Union during the Civil War, and furnished to the National army more 
than 20,000 soldiers. It was several times invaded by raiding parties from the 
Confederate army west of the Mississippi. One of these parties sacked and 
"burned Lawrence. 

Kansas is rapidly growing in population and wealth. Nearly all its soil 
is very fertile. In 1880 it produced 105,729,325 bushels of Indian corn, 17,- 
324,141 bushels of wheat, and 8,180,385 bushels of oats. In corn production 
it ranks sixth in the Union. In 1880 it had 430,907 horses, 1,451,000 cattle, 
499,571 sheep, and 1,787,969 swine. 

Kansas is quite rapidly developing manufacturing industries. Its bitu- 
minous coal-fields cover 17,000 square miles. It had, in 1880, 3439 miles of 
railroads in operation within its borders, which cost $64,123,872. The 
^sessed valuation of real and personal property in the State was $16,891,689. 

In 1880 there were 348,647 children of school age in Kansas, of whom 
-231,434 were enrolled in the public schools. The State expended for com- 
mon schools $1,819,561. It has a State university, an agricultural college, 
and six other colleees. 

Kansas is an Indian word, signifying " Smoky Water." It is called " The 
Garden of the West." 





(1863.) 

West Virginia is one of the Central States of the Uniorr,. 
lying between latitude 37° 6' and 40° 40' north, and longi- 
tude yj^ 40' and 82° 35' west. Its area is 24,780 square 
miles, and its population in 1880 was 610,457, o^ whom 
25,920 were colored, including 29 Indians. The State is. 
bounded on the north-west by Ohio, on the north-north- 
east and east-north-east by Pennsylvania and Maryland, on the east-south- 
east and south by Virginia, and on the south-west by Virginia and Kentucky.. 
The general topographical aspect of West Virginia is that of a hilly 
country with fertile valleys. Of the latter the Shenandoah Valley is the most 
extensive and productive. The north-east part of the State is crossed by the 
Alleghany Mountains. West of them are ranges supposed to be a prolonga- 
tion of the Cumberland Mountains. The valley between these ranges and 
the Alleghanies is elevated from 1200 to 2000 feet above the sea. The 
scenery of the whole State is grand and beautiful. That about Harper's. 
Ferry is unsurpassed in picturesqueness. There are no considerable lakes. 
Its streams flow into the Ohio River. 

West Virginia formed the west and north-west portions of Virginia — the 
" Old Dominion " — until the latter adopted an ordinance of Secession in the 
spring of 1861. The members of the Secession Convention for this region of 
the Commonwealth were nearly all Unionists. Before the adjournment of 
that Convention, the inhabitants of the hilly and mountain region, where the 
slave population was comparatively small, had met at various places to con- 
sult upon public affairs. At the first of these (at Clarksburg, April 22, 1861) 
a member of the Convention (J. S. Carlisle) offered a series of resolutions 
calling an assembly of delegates of the people at Wheeling on May 13. They 
were adopted. Similar Conventions were held elsewhere. At Kingwood, in 
Preston county, on May 4, a Conv^ention declared that the separation of 
Western from Eastern Virginia was essential to the maintenance of their 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 493 

liberties. They also resolved to elect a representative to the National Con- 
gress. 

These bold declarations were echoed from several points. About 400 
delegates met at Wheeling on the appointed day. The chief topics of dis- 
cussion were on the division of the State and the formation of a new one 
composed of forty or fifty counties of the mountain region. There was re- 
markable unanimity of sentiment in the Convention against longer submit- 
ting to the control of the slaveholders of the State; also of love for the Union.. 
It condemned the Ordinance of Secession, and called a provisional Conven- 
tion to assemble at the same place on June 11, if the obnoxious ordinance 




ARTHUR J. BOREMAN, FIRST GOVERNOR OF WEST VIRGINIA. 

should be ratified by the people. A Central Committee was appointed, who 
issued an address to the people of North-western Virginia. 

These proceedings thoroughly alarmed the Secessionists. Expecting an 
armed revolt in Western Virginia, the Governor ordered a military com- 
mander of State troops at Grafton to seize arms at Wheehng, cut off tele- 
graphic communication between that city and Washington, and to destroy 
the Baltimore and Ohio railroad if troops from Ohio or Pennsylvania should 
attempt to take possession of it. 

The Convention met at Wheeling on June 11. Arthur J. Boreman was 
chosen president. A committee was appointed to draw up a Bill of Rights. 
All allegiance to the Southern Confederacy was totally denied, and it was 
declared that all officers in Virginia who adhered to it were suspended and 



494 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

their offices vacated. They condemned the Ordinance of Secession, and 
called upon all citizens who had taken up arms for the Confederacy to lay 
them down. They adopted measures for a provisional Government, and for 
the election of officers for six months. 

This was not secession from Virginia, but purely revolutionary. On 
June 17 they adopted a declaration of independence of the old Government 
•of Virginia. It was signed by fifty-six members present. On the 20th there 
was a unanimous vote in favor of a separation of Western from Eastern Vir- 
ginia; and on the same day a provisional Government was organized by the 
appointment of Francis H. Pierrepont, Governor; Daniel Polsley, Lieutenant- 
Governor; and an Executive Council of five members. 

Governor Pierrepont immediately notified the President of the United 
States of insurrection in Western Virginia, and asked aid to suppress it. He 
raised $12,000 for the public use, pledging his own private fortune for the 
•amount. A Legislature was elected, and met at Wheeling on the first of July, 
when John S. Carlisle and Waitman T. W^ylley were chosen to represent " the 
restored Commonwealth " in the Senate of the United States. 

These movements were not intended for Western Virginia alone, but foi 
the whole State. Governor Pierrepont said — " It was not the object of the 
Wheeling Convention to set up a new Government in the State, or separate, 
or other Government than the one under which they had always lived." 

But circumstances altered the case. On the 20th of August, 1861, the 
■Convention re-assembled and passed an ordinance for the organization of a 
new State, which was submitted to the people and by them ratified. At a 
session of the Convention in November following, the name of " West 
Virginia " was given to the new State. A Constitution was framed, which 
the people ratified on May 3, 1862. The Governor convened the Legislature 
the 6th of the same month, which passed an act giving its consent to the 
formation of a new State. It forwarded to Congress this consent, together 
with an official copy of the Constitution adopted by the people, with a request 
that the new State might be admitted into the Union. 

In December following Congress passed an act for the admission of West 
Virginia to an equal position with the other States. It was approved by the 
President on December 31. Certain conditions were required to be complied 
with by the new Commonwealth before absolute admission. This was duly 
performed, and on April 20, 1863, the President of the United States pro- 
-claimed that West Virginia was an independent State of the Union. Its in- 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 495 

auguration took place at Wheeling on June 20, with imposing ceremonies. 
Arthur J. Boreman was chosen its first Governor. 

The inherent energies of the people of West Virginia were displayed in 
a remarkable degree from the birth of the Commonwealth. During the war, 
in the midst of which its nativity occurred, the State furnished fully 30,00a 
troops to the National army, yet the people were much divided in sentiment, 
and a large number of men enlisted in the Confederate army. The State was 
repeatedly invaded by the Confederates, especially in the regions bordering- 
on the old State. The Kanawha Valley was the scene of several severe 
battles early in the war, but at the later period the State was exempt from, 
hostilities. 

Since the war West Virginia has been prosperous, and its resources have 
been rapidly developed. Its river and railway commerce is very large. In 
1884 it had 148 steam vessels employed in freight and passage traffic, and 
there were over 700 miles of railroads in operation within its borders. 

The principal crops of West Virginia are Indian corn, wheat and oats. 
In 1880 it produced 14,090,609 bushels of corn, 4,000,000 bushels of wheat, 
1,908,505 bushels of oats, and considerable rye, buckwheat and barley. To- 
bacco is quite extensively cultivated. The yield of tobacco in 1880 was 
2,296,146 pounds. In 1885 here were raised 15,827,000 bushels of corn, 
1,493,000 bushels of wheat, and 2,831,000 bushels of oats. 

West Virginia had 2375 manufacturing establishments in 1880, with 
$13,883,390 invested in these industries. The value of the aggregate product 
was $22,867,126. The assessed value of the real and personal property of the. 
State last year was $163,516,336. 

The number of children of school age in the State in 1880 was 210,113,. 
of whom 143,796 were enrolled in the public schools. The State expended, 
in that year for public schools $720,967. 

West Virginia is sometimes called " The Pan-Handle State," because 
of a long, narrow projection of the territory in the northern part of the 
Commonwealth, between the Ohio River and the State of Pennsylvania. 





(1864.) 

Nevada is one of the Pacific States of the Union. It is 
the least populous and least in agricultural and manu- 
factured products of all the States, as it is one of the 
) ounger of the Commonwealths. It lies between lati- 
tude 35° and 42° north and 1 14° and 120° west longitude. 
It embraces an area of 1 10,700 square miles, and in 1880 had a population 
of 62,266, of whom 87 1 c were colored, including 5416 Chinese and 2803 
Indians. On its northern boundary is the State of Oregon and Territory of 
Idaho; on its eastern side are the Territories of Utah and Arizona; and on 
its south-west and west borders lies California. 

The surface of Nevada is generally mountainous. The greater part of 
it is included in the great American Basin, which has for its walls the Sierra 
Nevada on the west and the Wasatch Mountains on the east. This is a vast 
^able-land, averaging in elevation about 4000 feet above the sea. Above this 
level some mountain peaks rise from lOOO to 8000 feet. About 12,000 square 
miles in the south-east portion of the State are outside of the basin. 

It is estimated that two-thirds of Nevada is a bleak desert, which can 
neither be inhabited nor cultivated. It has no large river. One-third of 
Lake Tahoe, mentioned in our sketch of California, lies within Nevada. It 
appears to be pure spring water. Although it lies at the elevation of 
6000 feet above the sea, it never freezes. Its temperature seldom varies 
from fifty-seven degrees in winter and summer. In one region of the moun- 
tain ranges there is a considerable number of streams, which have the pecu- 
liarity of suddenly disappearing from the surface, and re-appearing in the 
form of lakes or pools. 

Nevada was a part of the cession of Mexico to the United States made 
by the treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo in 1848. (See California.) It re- 
mained a part of California until the creation of the Territory of Utah in 
1856, when it became a part of that domain. It remained a portion of 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 497 

the western part of Utah until March, 1861, when the Nevada Territory was 
organized, with somewhat smaller boundaries than those of the present 
State. Some additions were made to the area of the State by Congress in 
1866. 

The mineral wealth of Nevada caused much emigration thither, and its 
population rapidly increased. In the fall of 1864 the people of the Territory, 
in delegate Convention assembled, prepared a State Constitution, by the 
authority of an enabling act passed by Congress in the spring of that year. 
They were very anxious to be admitted to the Union as a State, in time to 




HENRY G. BLAISDELL, FIRST GOVERNOR OF NEVADA. 

cast a vote at the Presidential election in November. The time was too 
short to allow them to send the Constitution to Washington by an ordinary 
messenger in season to win that privilege, so they sent it on the swift wings 
of lightning.. They telegraphed the Constitution to the President, who, on 
the 31st day of October, 1864, issued a proclamation that "the State of Nev- 
ada was admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original 
States." This good news was sent back by telegraph. Within a week after- 
wards the election was held, and 16,426 voters were cast in Nevada; 9826 
for Mr. Lincoln and 6594 for General McClellan, giving Lincoln a majority 
of 3232. Henry G. Blaisdell was chosen the first Governor of the new State. 



498 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

The enabling act required the people of the State to prohibit slavery 
within their domain ; to guarantee perfect toleration of religious sentiment, 
and to disclaim all right and title to the unappropriated public lands lying, 
within their territory. 

Nevada is the richest State in the Union, in respect to its mineral re- 
sources. No region in the world is richer in argentiferous lodes. These are 
found scattered over the entire Washoe country, the richest of which — the 
" Comstock lode " — had yielded immense amounts of silver. There " Virginia 
City " grew up in a day, as it were. In 1864 it was the second city in popula- 
tion on the Pacific coast. The late J. Ross Brown has given the following 
account of the finding of silver in the Washoe region : 

" Patrick McLoughlin was working for gold in a gulch or ravine, where 
he was making $10 a day to the hand. He followed it up, finding it paying 
better and better, until it gave out altogether, when he and his companions 
struck a vein of pure sulphuret of silver. They at first supposed it to be 
coal, but observing it to be heavy concluded it must be valuable. They sent 
one of their number to San Francisco to ascertain its value. 

"The lump was given to Killaley, an old Mexican miner, to assay. He 
took it home and assayed the ore. The result was so astounding that the old 
man became terribly excited. The next morning he was found dead in his 
bed. He had been in poor health for some time, and the excitement killed 
him. 

" Search vas immediately made for the original deposit, which resulted 
in the discovery of the famous ' Comstock lode.' When first found this 
lode had no outcropping, or other indications to denote its presence." This 
mine yielded, in 1864, silver valued at $10,425,350. The lode was discovered 
in June, 1859. 

The agricultural products of Nevada are comparatively meagre. Owing 
to the scarcity of water supply, irrigation is much resorted to. Some of its 
mountain slopes are good grazing lands, and raising of cattle is becoming an 
important industry. In 1880 there were in Nevada 32,087 horses, 172,221 
cattle, 133,695 sheep, and 9100 swine. There were 69,298 bushels of wheat, 
12,891 bushels of corn, 186,860 bushels of oats, and 513,470 bushels of barley 
raised. The wool-clip of 1880 was 655,000 pounds. 

The manufactures of Nevada are confined almost wholly to milling and 
mining industries. The reports of the United States mint show that, to 1884, 
nearly $80,000,000 in silver and $16,000,000 in gold had been coined from 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 499 

Nevada. The mining of these precious metals required much machinery. 
There were in the State, in 1880, 143 quartz crushing-mills. The value of 
the total products of manufactures that year was estimated at $32,534,605. 
Nevada had within its borders 900 miles of railway, which cost $16,570,715. 

The assessed value of taxable property, real and personal, in Nevada in 
1880 was $27,598,658. The interests of popular education are looked after 
with enlightened generosity. There were enrolled in the public schools 
8918 children of school age, and, in 1880, $212,164 were paid for the support 
of pubHc schools. 

Nevada is the Spanish word signifying " Snow Cloud," referring to the 
Sierra Nevada ranges, which are on its western border. 




(1867). 

Nebraska is one of the Central States of the Union. It 

lies between latitude 40° and 43° north, and longitude 

95° 23' and 104 west. The Territory of Dakota is on 

its northern border; the States of Iowa and Illinois, 

from which it is separated by the Missouri River, are on 

its eastern boundary; the States of Kansas and Colorado, 

and the Territory of Wyoming, on the west. Its area is 76,855 square miles. 

In 1880 Nebraska had a population of 452,402, of whom 2638 were colored, 

including 235 Indians. 

Through its entire length, east and west, the country dips towards the 
Missouri River, it being upon the slope of the great central basin of the North 
American continent. The larger portion of the State is elevated, undulating 
prairie. It has some moderate hills. The river beds are deeply eroded by 
the action of the water, and the bluffs which line them, rising sometimes two 
or three hundred feet above them, give an appearance of hills where none 
exist. The eastern portion of the State is well watered and generally very 
fertile. In the western part of the State is a region ninety miles in length 
and thirty in width, known as the " Bad Lands." It is composed of sterile 
soil, and, seen at a distance, appears like a region of remains of civilization, 
the prismatic and columnar masses appearing like ruins of modern architec- 
ture. Among them may be found tracts of good land. The principal stream 
of the State is the Platte or Nebraska River. 

Nebraska was a part of the Louisiana territory, purchased from France 
in 1803. Lewis and Clarke traversed it in 1804 (see Oregon), who were proba- 
bly the first white men who explored it from east to west. When, in 1812, 
Louisiana was admitted into the Union as a State, that domain formed a part 
of the territory of Missouri. It was then occupied by powerful and warhke 
barbarians, and seemed unfitted for occupation by a civilized people. Still, 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 501 

.a few settlements were early made by enterprising adventurers in its eastern 
portions; and from about 1840, population there increased quite rapidly. 

In 1844 a movement was made in Congress for the organization of (now) 
Nebraska, and a larger region, into a Territory. Another bill for the same 
purpose was submitted to Congress in 1849, ^^^ nothing more was then done. 
Finally, in 1854, Senator Douglas introduced a bill for dividing the domain, 
and the erection within it of two Territories to be called respectively Nebraska 
and Kansas. It became a law in May, 1854, when the two Territories were 
created. (See Kansas.) Nebraska then included a part of Dakota, Montana, 
most of Wyoming, and the north-eastern part of Colorado. It was made a 
iree-labor Territory. 




DAVI® BUTLER, FIRST GOVERNOR OF NEBRASKA, » 

In 1 861 and 1863 the area of Nebraska was greatly diminished by the set- 
ting off of the Territories of Dakota, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana. As 
the Pacific Railroad, which had its eastern terminus at Omaha, began to 
stretch eastward, and the agricultural advantages of Nebraska became known, 
population flowed in quite rapidly. 

On March 24, 1864, Congress passed an act to enable the citizens of 
Nebraska to form a State Constitution and Government, preparatory to its 
admission into the Union as a State. Its conditions were complied with, and 
in January, 1867, a bill was introduced in the United States Senate to admit 
the Territory into the Union, to take effect only " on the fundamental and 
perpetual condition " that there should be no abridgment or denial of the 
exercise of the elective franchise by reason of race or color, except in the 



502 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 

case of Indians, not taxed. This act passed both Houses of Congress, but 
was vetoed by President Johnston, mainly on the ground that the conditions 
imposed upon the people of that Territory by that act were indirectly in con- 
flict with one of the provisions of their Constitution which they had framed. 
He said — " The people of the States can alone make or change their organic 
laws, and prescribe the qualifications requisite for electors." The act was 
formally passed over his veto, and on March i, 1867, Nebraska entered the 
Union as an equal and independent State, with David Butler as its first Gov- 
ernor. 

In March, 1867, Congress provided for a geological survey of the State. 
Lincoln having been selected as the State capital, and made the centre of 
several projected railroads, the population of the new State increased rapidly 
from this period. The people were scourged by Indian depredations for 
some years, but peace has long reigned in that region. Its fine climate and 
good soil attract immigration, and agriculture is the leading industry of the 
State, together with cattle-raising. 

In 1880 there were raised in Nebraska 65,450,135 bushels of Indian corn, 
13,847,000 bushels of wheat, 6,555,875 bushels of oats, 1,744,686 bushels of 
barley, and 424,348 bushels of rye. There were on the farms 204,864 horses, 
20,000 mules and asses, 754,550 cattle, 200,000 sheep, and 1,241,724 swine. 
The wool-clip that year yielded 1,282,656 pounds. There were raised in the 
State 57,979 pounds of tobacco. 

The manufacturing establishments of Nebraska are rapidly increasing. 
In 1880 there were 1403. The number has probably nearly doubled. That 
year the value of their aggregate products was $12,627,336. At the beginning 
of 1882 there were 2310 miles of railway in Nebraska, which cost $172,057,659. 
The assessed value of real and personal property in the State in 188 1 was 
$93,142,457. Having no port of entry, the commerce of Nebraska is internal^ 
and is considerable. 

Education receives liberal attention. There were in the State in 1880 
142,348 children of school age, of whom 100,871 were enrolled in the public 
schools. For the support of these schools the State expended that year 
$565,651. It has four colleges and universities. 

Nebraska is an Indian word, signifying " Shallow Water," a description 
appropriately applied to the Missouri and Platte rivers. 



|©L0^^0. 




(1876). 



^ The youngest State in the Union at this moment (August, 



1888) is Colorado, being only a dozen years of age, yet it is 
having a lusty growth, and gives promise of a grand future. 
It is a Central State of the " New West," lying between 
latitude 37° and 41° north, and longitude 102° and 109° west. 
Its area is 103,645 square miles. It is bounded on the north 
by the State of Nebraska and the Territory of Wyoming, on the east by 
Kansas, on the south by New Mexico, and on the west by Utah. 

One-third of the State, on the east, is a lofty plateau, rising gradually 
until, at the foot-hills of the Rocky Mountains, the country is from 6000 to 
7000 feet above the sea-level. The remainder of the State is occupied by 
the Rocky Mountains, which rise in their greatest grandeur within the Com- 
monwealth of Colorado. These mountains traverse the State from north to 
south, nearly through the middle of the Commonwealth. Within these ranges 
are embraced the North, Middle, South, San Luis, Egira, Estes, Animas, and 
Huerfan parks, which are immense areas of level lands, surrounded by snow- 
clad mountains, and each having a climate and a soil peculiar to itself. They 
are the beds of ancient lakes or inland seas. 

Within the limits of Colorado the Rocky Mountains present peaks each 
over 14,000 feet in height, and some hundreds more rise to an altitude 
between 11,000 and 14,000 feet. The Great Plains present a smooth, un- 
dulating surface, destitute of timber, excepting in the valleys of the water 
courses and the highlands, which divide the waters of the Platte and Ar- 
kansas rivers, which rise near the centre of the State. The caftons, or vast 
ravines, in Colorado are terrible in their grandeur, some of them being from 
2000 to 5000 feet in depth. 

It is believed that Francis Vasquez de Coronado, a Spanish adventurer, 
was the first European who trod the soil of Colorado. He set out in 1540, 
by command of the Viceroy of Mexico, from the south-east coast of the Gulf 



504 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

of California, with 350 Spaniards and 800 Indians, to explore the country- 
northward. He followed the coast nearly to the head of the gulf, and then 
crossed to the Gila River, in (present) Arizona Territory, and followed it to its. 
head-waters. He went over the great hills eastward to the upper waters of 
the Rio Grande del Norte, which he followed to their sources. Crossing the 
Rocky Mountains he traversed the great desert north-easterly to the (present) 
States of Colorado and Kansas, under latitude 40° north. In all that vast 
region Coronado found little to tempt or reward conquest, only rugged 
mountains, bleak plains, and a few Indian villages in some of the valleys. 

For nearly three centuries after Coronado's expedition, Colorado lay 




JOHN L. ROUTT, FIRST GOVERNOR OF COLORADO. 

hidden from the outside world. In 1806 President Jefferson sent Lieutenant 
Z. M. Pike to explore this region. He and his command nearly crossed the 
territory, and gave the name to Pike's Peak, which they discovered. In 1820 
an expedition under Colonel Long visited the region, and in 1842-44 Lieuten- 
ant-colonel Fremont crossed Colorado in his famous passage of the Rocky 
Mountains. 

In 1852 gold was discovered near Pike's Peak by a Cherokee cattle- 
trader. This, and other discoveries of the precious metals, had brought four 
or five hundred adventurers to Colorado in 1858. The first discovery of a 
gold-bearing lode was made by John H. Gregory in 1859 i" Gilpin county. 
Immigrants had fk)cked thither in large numbers, and late in 1859 ^^e miners 
attempted to form a civil Government. They erected Arapahoe county, and 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 505 

elected a representative to the Kansas Legislature, who was instructed to 
urge the separation of the district from Kansas to form a new Territory. 

In the autumn of 1859 ^ Convention of 128 delegates was held at Denver, 
who decided to memorialize Congress for the creation of a new Territory. 
Nothing of importance was accomplished until 1861, when the Territory of 
Colorado was organized. It was formed out of portions of Kansas, Nebraska 
and Utah. The people of the Territory applied for its admission to the 
Union as a State. Congress passed bills for that purpose in 1865 and 1867. 
They were vetoed by President Johnston, Finally, Congress passed an en- 
abling act in March, 1875. The people framed a State Constitution and 
organized a Government, and on July 4, 1876, Colorado was admitted as an 
equal and independent State of the Union, with John L. Routt as its first 
Governor. Since that event Colorado has rapidly increased in population 
and wealth. It has become a great resort for a special class of invalids. 

Colorado is rich in mineral wealth. Gold and silver are found in twenty- 
one of the thirty-nine counties in the State. The largest industry in the 
Commonwealth is, at present, the mining, smelting and reducing the precious 
and other metals. 

The entire output of gold, silver, copper and lead in Colorado, from 1859 
to 1881, was $120,600,000, of which $62,000,000 was gold, $55,000,000 silver, 
$950,000 copper, and $2,600,000 lead. The coal industry is assuming large 
proportions, and cattle-herding, sheep-raising, and the wool traffic have 
become important. In 1880 there were 600 manufacturing establishments in 
Colorado, the total value of the products of which, that year, was $14,260,159. 
In 1883 there were, in Colorado, 2326 miles of railways in operation, 
which, with equipments, cost $89,304,648. The assessed value of real and 
personal property in the State in 1880 was $74,471,693. 

Colorado has an excellent school system and an ample school fund. It 
has a State university, a State agricultural college, a college at Colorado 
Springs, and graded and high schools of a high order. 

The population of Colorado in 1884 was over 300,000. Its principal 
towns in population in 1880 were — Denver, the capital, 35,629, and Leadville 
14,820. 

Colorado is from a Spanish word, meaning " colored." It is called "The 
Centennial State," because it was admitted to the Union on the Centen- 
nial of the Republic. 



¥he ^eFPitiSMes and SislPiQls. 



While States have been formed out of several of the Territories treated 
in the following sketches and have been duly admitted into the Union, their 
history up to the present writing is mainly that of Territories. For this rea- 
son the writer has confined himself to their history as such, merely giving the 
facts as to their admission. The time has not yet arrived for their historical 
treatment as States. 

The following sketches are given in the chronological order of the organi- 
zation of the respective Territories and Districts. 




A District ten miles square, lying on each side of 
the Potomac River, in Maryland and Virginia, was 
made the seat of the National Government in 1789, 
and named the District of Columbia. It was divided into 
two counties, separated by the Potomac, and was placed 
under the jurisdiction of a Circuit Court composed of 
a Chief Justice and two Assistants. It was under the direct control of Con- 
gress. This arrangement was afterwards modified. Instead of providing a 
homogenous code of laws for the District, those of Maryland and Virginia 
were continued in force. 

The city of Washington, the future capital of the Republic, was laid out 
on a magnificent scale, with broad avenues, bearing the names of the several 
States of the Union, and radiating from the hill on which the Capitol was 
built, as a common centre, with streets intersecting them in such a peculiar 
way that they have ever been a puzzle to strangers. 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 507 

The site of the city was a dreary one. The corner-stone of the Capitol 
was laid in 1793, upon which began the superstructure of the north wing. 
That portion was completed in the year 1800. The south wing was com- 
pleted in 1808. The President's house (called the White House) was built 
on a gentle eminence nearly a mile west of the Capitol. When, in the year 
1800, the seat of Government was transferred from Philadelphia to the 
District of Columbia, only a path leading through an alder swamp on the line 
of (present) Pennsylvania Avenue, was the way of communication between 
the President's house and the Capitol. 

For a while the Executive and Legislative officers of the Government 
were compelled to suffer many privations there. The wife of President 
Adams wrote, in 1800: 

" I could content myself almost anywhere for three months, but, sur- 
rounded with forests, can you believe that wood is not to be had, because 
people cannot be found to cut and cart it ? * * * Most of the wood had 
been expended to dry the walls before we came in. * * * We have had 
recourse to coals, but we cannot get grates made and set." 

Oliver Wolcott, member of Congress, wrote to a friend at about the sam^ 
time, saying — " There is one good tavern about forty rods from the Capitol, 
and several houses are built or are erecting; but I don't see how the members 
of Congress can possibly secure lodgings, unless they will consent to live like 
scholars in a college, crowded ten or twenty in one house. The only resource 
for such as wish to live comfortably will be found in Georgetown, three miles 
distant, over as bad a road in winter as the clay grounds near Hartford. 
* * * There are, in fact, but few houses in any one place, and most of 
them are small, miserable huts, which present an awful contrast to the public 
buildings. * * * You may look in every direction over an extent of 
ground nearly as large as the city of New York without seeing a fence, or 
any object except brick-kilns and temporary huts for laborers." 

The original form of Government for the District continued in force 
until early in 1871, when Congress passed a bill giving to the District the 
management of its own affairs. The District was then organized as a Terri- 
tory, with a Governor appointed by the President and a Legislature chosen 
by the people. The latter body consisted of a Council and a House of 
Delegates, the fol-mer having eleven members and the latter twenty-two. 
The Government was directed to confine itself strictly to the affairs of the 
District. The inhabitants of the District could not vote for President or 



5o8 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 

Vice-iTesident of the United States. They might send one delegate to 
Congress, who exercised the rights of other Territorial delegates. The 
charters of the cities of Washington and Georgetown were repealed, and all 
laws passed by the District or themselves were subject to the power of 
Congress, which retained its legislative control of the Territory. The portion 
of the District of Columbia on the right side of the Potomac was retroceded 
to Virginia in 1846. 

The Government established in 1871 was abolished by Congress in 1874, 
when the affairs of the District, including those of the city of Washington, 
were placed under the management of three Commissioners, acting under 
the direct control of the National Legislature, for the levying and disburse- 
ment of taxes, and all public improvements. The citizens have no vote, 
either in District or National affairs. Justice is administered by a Supreme 
Court of the District of Columbia, having six Justices, and by a Police Court, 
presided over by a single Judge. 

The original area of the District of Columbia was 100 square miles. It 
is now sixty-four square miles. Agriculture is the chief pursuit of the in- 
Ijabitants outside of the cities of Washington and Georgetown. Its manufac- 
tures are limited and its commerce is trifling. The assessed value of the real 
and personal private property of the District in 1880 was about $iCX),ooo,ooo. 

In 1880 there were 43,558 children of school age in the District, of whom 
27,299 were enrolled in the public schools. The amount expended that year 
for free schools was $527,312. The District has numerous flourishing private 
schools. It has three universities or colleges. The population of the District 
in 1 880 was 177,624- 





^In 1832 the United States Government set apart a large 
tract of land west of the Mississippi River (which was a 
part of the domain of Louisiana purchased in 1803), and 
devoted it to the purpose of a permanent residence for 
the remnants of the Indian tribes on the east of the 
Lower Mississippi River. 
On January 30, 1834, Congress enacted that " all that part of the United 
States west of the Mississippi River, and not in the States of Missouri and 
Louisiana, or the Territory (now State) of Arkansas, shall be considered the 
Indian country." It has been reduced in area by the successive formation of 
Territories and States, until its area is now (1888) 64,690 square miles. It 
lies between latitude 33° 35' and 37° north, and longitude ICX)° and 103° v/est. 
It is bounded on the north by Kansas, on the east by Arkansas and Missouri, 
on the south and west by Texas, from which it is separated by the Red River. 
The country slopes gently from the foot-hills of the Rocky Mountains on the 
west towards the Mississippi and the valley of the Lower Red River. It has 
mountain ranges of moderate elevation. The Ozark or Washita Mountains 
enter it from Arkansas, in the eastern part of the Territory, and in the north- 
western part is a portion of the Great American Desert. The general aspect 
of a greater portion of the Territory is that of an undulating plain. It is 
drained by the Arkansas and Red Rivers and their affluents. 

The tribes from east of the Mississippi, which first settled there, were 
the Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Cherokees, who went thither from 
1833 to 1838; also some Seminoles and fragments of other tribes a little later. 
The Territory includes over thirty distinct Indian nations or tribes, on seven- 
teen reservations and unassigned lands. In 1880 there were eleven Indian 
agencies in the Territory, who represented the United States, but each tribe 
has its own internal government. 

The National Government exercises no authority over the Indians ex- 
cepting for the punishment of certain crimes committed by them against the 



5IO THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

"white people. For this purpose the Indian Territory was annexed to the 
judicial districts of the States of Missouri and Arkansas. The Indians are 
allowed to live under their own laws and follow their own customs and modes 
of life. Each tribe has its own lands assigned and secured to it by the 
United States. Efforts have been made to organize the Territory under a 
Constitution which should place the different tribes in corresponding rela- 
tions to the General Government held by the States of the Union. 

During the late Civil War emissaries of the Confederate leaders went 
among the more intelligent of the Indian tribes to seduce them from their 
allegiance to the United States, and succeeded in winning quite a large 
number. The more enlightened Cherokees and Creeks were not so easily 
moved at first. The venerable John Ross, who for almost forty years had 
^een the principal chief of the Cherokees, took a decided stand against these 
corrupting emissaries, and urged his people to be faithful to their treaty ob- 
ligations to the United States. 

Ross and his loyal adherents were overborne by the tide of rebellion. 
The forts on the frontier of Texas, which had been used for their defense, 
had been abandoned by United States troops, also those on the Arkansas 
frontier. Thus unsupported, the Cherokees were driven into the attitude of 
rebellion, and suffered dreadfully afterwards. Ross was compelled to fly to 
the North to escape personal violence. 

It is the policy of the United States Government to settle the various 
Indian tribes in that region on separate reservations, as far as possible, where 
they may be free from the encroachments of the white people ; but large 
numbers of " pale-faces " have gone into the Territory and settled there. It 
seems destined to be, ere long, overwhelmed by the tide of civilization by 
which it is surrounded. The Indians themselves are making rapid advances 
in the arts and refinements of civilized life. They are following the pursuits 
of agriculturists and cattle-raising with success. 

In 1880 industry in the Indian Territory produced 2,015,000 bushels 
of Indian corn; 565,400 bushels of wheat; 165,500 tons of hay, and quite 
A large crop of barley and cotton. Some of the people were engaged in 
the lumber business. They also had much live stock. At one time the 
■whole people of the Territory had over 200,000 horses, 320,000 horned cattle, 
22,500 sheep, and 400,000 swine. They also made hunting a profitable pursuit. 
Until within a comparatively few years, vast herds of buffalo and wild horses 
roamed over its prairies, and wild deer were abundant. 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 511 

The five leading nations or tribes are the Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws,, 
Chickasaws and Seminoles. To these the schools in the Territory are con- 
fined. They are giving them vigorous support. In 1880 they expended for 
that purpose the sum of $186,359. At that time there were 11,444 children 
of school age in the Territory, of whom over 6000 were enrolled in the 
schools. Not less than 30,000 of the people of the Territory can read, and 
three newspapers are conducted by the Indians, one in English, one in Eng- 
lish and Cherokee, and one in English and Choctaw. 

Those more enlightened tribes lost a vast amount of property during the 
Civil War from Confederate raids and other causes, but have regained it, and 
their possessions are now estimated at the value of over $20,000,000. The 
population of the Territory in 1880 was about 80,000. A larger portion of 
them are sufficiently civilized to become citizens. Among the five principal 
tribes there are very few white people. 





When the Spaniards discovered the region of New Mexico 
it was inhabited by an industrious, semi-barbarous people, 
probably of the Toltec or Aztec races, whom Cortez 
found in Old Mexico. They had walled towns, and 
stone dwellings several stories in height. They made 
textile fabrics in wool and cotton, and gathered large 
crops from the well-irrigated soil. 

New Mexico is a South-western Territory of the Union, lying between 
latitude 31° 20' and 37° north, and longitude 103° 2' and 109° 2' west. On 
the north it is bounded by Colorado, on the east by Texas and the Indian 
Territory, on the south by Texas and Mexico, and on the west by Arizona. 
It embraces an area of 122,580 square miles. 

This Territory is a part of a lofty table-land broken by mountain ranges, 
which form the foundations of the Rocky Mountains and Sierra Nevada 
ranges. This table-land slopes southward to the barren region known as 
the " Staked Plains." The Sierra Madre passes through its central portion. 
The best habitable part of the Territory is the valley of the Rio Grande, 
where the climate is temperate and salubrious. Only a small portion of 
the Territory is wooded. 

Spanish adventurers, among them Coronado (see Colorado), visited this 
region so early as 1537-40. In 1580-81 Augustin Ruyz, a Franciscan friar, 
inflamed with missionary zeal, with three companions, penetrated to the Rio 
Grand.e; and soon afterwards he was followed by Antonio Espejo, a Spaniard, 
with some soldiers, who built forts and took possession of the whole country 
in the name of the Spanish monarch, and called it " New Mexico." Santa 
Fe, its present capital, was built soon afterwards, and is, next to St. Augus- 
tine, the oldest borough in the United States. 

The Spanish missions readily made converts of the pueblo or village In- 
dians. Many successful stations were planted, but the enslavement of the 
natives by the Spaniards caused much discontent, and consequent insecurity 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 



513 



for the white people there. Finally, in 1680, the Indians drove the white 
people out, and recovered the country from the Spaniards as far south as El 
Paso del Norte. The Spaniards regained possession in 1698, and the province 
remained a part of Mexico until 1846. 

General S. W. Kearney, in command of the Army of the West in the 
war with Mexico, in 1846, was ordered to conquer New Mexico and Cali- 
fornia. He left Fort Leavenworth, on the Missouri River, in Kansas, in 
June, with 1600 men, and arrived at Santa Fe, after a march of 900 miles, on 
the 1 8th of August. He had traversed great plains and rugged mountains 
without opposition. As he approached the New Mexican capital, the Gov- 
ernor and 4000 soldiers fled, leaving the 6000 inhabitants of the city to quietly 




JAMES S. CALHOUN, FIRST GOVERNOR OF NEW MEXICO. 



submit to the invaders. Kearney then took formal possession of the State, 
appointed a provisional Governor, and pushed on towards California. (See 
California) New Mexico was ceded to the United States by the treaty of 
Guadulupe-Hidalgo in February, 1848. 

An attempt was made in 1861 to attach New Mexico to the Southern 
Confederacy by the method employed by Twiggs in Texas. (See Texas}} 
Disloyal officers were sent thither by Floyd, the Secretary of War, a year be- 
fore the Civil War broke out, to corrupt the patriotism of the soldiers. They 
failed to corrupt a single one of the twelve hundred men under them. These 
officers were compelled to flee to Texas from the wrath of their soldiers when 
their scheme became apparent. They had led the unsuspecting troops to 
Fort Fillmore, on the Texas border. The commander of that post co-oper- 



514 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 

ated with those leaders, and the loyal soldiers were betrayed into the power 
of the Texan insurgents. 

The Secessionists now felt assured of success in New Mexico, when Gen- 
eral Canby arrived and raised the standard of the Union. Around it the 
loyal people of the Territory gathered. With regular troops, New Mexican 
levies, and volunteers, he saved the Territory from the grasp of the insurgents. 

New Mexico was erected into a Territory of the United States in Sep- 
tember, 1850, when a Territorial Government was formed and James S. Cal- 
houn was chosen the first Governor. The region south of the Gila was ob- 
tained by purchase in 1853, and was added to New Mexico in 1854. It then 
contained the whole of Arizona and a portion of Colorado and Nevada. 
These were afterwards set off from it. The Territory has long been qualified 
to enter the Union as a State, and has asked for that privilege. 

The agricultural productions of New Mexico are not abundant. In 1880 
it produced 706,641 bushels of wheat, 633,786 bushels of Indian corn, 156,527 
bushels of oats, and a small amount of rye and barley. It had, of farm 
animals, 14,547 horses, 166,701 cattle, 2,088,831 sheep, and 7857 swine. The 
wool-clip that year was 4,019,188 pounds. Some tobacco was raised. 

The manufactures of New Mexico are comparatively insignificant. In 
1882 there were 975 miles of railway in operation in the Territory, which cost 
$28,369,300. 

The assessed valuation of real and personal property in the Territory in 
1881 was $19,523,624. There were about 30,000 children of school age, but 
only 4755 were enrolled in public schools. The sum of $28,973 was expended 
for the support of these schools that year. 

The precious metals are abundant in New Mexico. Its mineral wealth 
is not yet developed. Its future prosperity will probably depend very largely 
upon its mines. 





The Territory of Utah was originally inhabited by a tribe 
of Ute or Utah Indians, from whom its name is derived. 
It lies mostly in the Great Wasatch Basin, between the 
Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada range, and 
comprises an area of 84,970 square miles. It lies be- 
tween latitude 37° and 42° north, and longitude 109" 
and 114° west. The population of the Territory, in 1880, was i44,ocK), of 
whom (including 500 Chinese and 800 Indians) 1540 were colored. On the 
north of Utah lie the Territories of Idaho and Wyoming, on the north-east 
is Wyoming, east is Colorado, south is Arizona, and west is Nevada. 

Utah is traversed by the great Wasatch range of mountains, which forms 
the east wall of the Great Basin. East of that range is a plateau fifty miles 
wide, sloping to an elevated valley, a part of which is very fertile. The west- 
ern part of the Territory is also elevated. In the north-east is a barren, al- 
kaline desert. 

The Wasatch Mountains present snowy peaks ii,ooo to 12,000 feet above 
the sea-level. In the Great Wasatch Basin are many lakes, into which rivers 
empty. Among these is the Great Salt Lake, over 100 miles in length and 
nearly fifty in width. The rivers have cut cafions or ravines, 2000 to 5000 feet 
in depth. The Territory may be designated as generally an elevated, moun- 
tainous, and largely barren region. The pure water, Utah Lake, the source 
of the Jordan, is 4475 feet above the sea. 

The settlement of Utah is one of the marvels of our National history. 
It was a part of Upper California, ceded to the United States by Mexico in 
1848. The Mormons, driven from Missouri and Illinois, penetrated the region 
in the summer of 1847. The story of the exodus reads like a wild romance. 

The people of Illinois, in whose State, at Nauvoo, the Mormons had set- 
tled and begun the erection of a temple, took measures to drive them from 
the Commonwealth. In February, 1844, ^^oo men, women and children 
crossed the Mississippi River on the ice, and, travelling with ox-teams and 



5i6 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST 



on foot, penetrated the then Indian country, and rested at Council Bluffs. 
Other bands followed, and in September the last lingering Mormons at Nauvoo 
were driven across the great river by the bayonets of soldiers — homeless 
exiles, led by a shrewd " prophet " named Brigham Young. To the Mormons 
his voice was the voice of God. They formed " Tabernacle Camps " in the 
wilderness, and while some tarried to cultivate the soil and aid other wan- 
derers who might follow, the great host moved on. 

That march was a wonderful sight to behold. They made short journeys 
by day, and encamped in military order every night. Every ten wagons were 
under the command of a captain, who was obedient to the command of a 




BRIGHAM YOUNG, FIRST GOVERNOR OF UTAH. 

centurion. Strict discipline everyw^here prevailed. They had singing and 
dancing. Many were swept away by miasmatic fevers. When winter fell 
upon them they suffered greatly. They made caves in the sand-hills for 
dwellings, and in the spring of 1847 they marked out the site of a city on 
the Missouri, where the Omahas dwelt. They named it " Kane City," in com- 
pliment to a brother of the Arctic explorer, who gave them much aid in the 
exodus. They sent missionaries even to the Sandwich Islands. Others went 
deeper into the wilderness to spy out a " promised land " for an " everlasting 
habitation." 

These persons chose the Great Salt Lake region, enclosed by lofty moun- 
tains, fertile, salubrious and isolated. Thither a chosen band of 143 men, 
with seventy wagons drawn by horses, accompanied by their wives and chil- 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 517 

dren and members of the High Council, proceeded to take possession of the 
country in the summer of 1847. On the evening of July 20 their eyes beheld, 
from the summits of the Wasatch Mountains, the placid Salt Lake glittering 
in the beams of the setting sun. It was a scene of wondrous interest to them 
— it was the " Land of Promise," where they expected to be forever freed 
from the " Gentiles " and the curse of " Gentile " government. They chose 
the site for a city near the Lake, on a gentle slope on the banks of a stream 
which they called Jordan. Fields were ploughed and sown in the spring of 
1848. The " saints " gathered there. They organized civil government and 
called the region the State of Deseret — the Land of the Honey-bees. 

The most prominent feature in the religious and social system of the 
Mormons is polygamy, which they persistently adhere to. Against this im- 
moral system the people of the rest of the Union have ever protested. Within 
a few years Congress has passed laws for its suppression. On account of that 
system Utah has been denied admission into the family of States of the Re- 
public. The city (Salt Lake), laid out four miles square by the pioneers in 
1847, contained in 1885, or less than forty years afterwards, 25,000 inhabitants, 
where they have their great temple, and is the metropolis of the hierarchy as 
well as of the Territory. The latter was created in 1850, and Brigham Young 
was appointed the first Governor. 

Incensed because Congress persistently refused to admit their Territory 
into the Union of States, the Mormons, from time to time, defied the power 
of the National Government, and committed many outrages. In 1858 United 
States troops were sent into the Territory to bring them into submission. It 
was done, and since then they have been more obedient to the laws of the 
Republic. 

The agricultural products of Utah are comparatively limited in amount, 
but there appears to be a general increase in its manufactures. In 1880 there 
were 640 manufacturing establishments in the Territory, the total value of 
the products of which was $4,324,992. Salt manufacturing is among the 
prominent industries. There were nearly 1000 miles of railway in the Terri- 
tory in 1885, which cost nearly $22,000,000. 

Utah has no Territorial debt. The assessed value of property in the 
Territory, real and personal, in 1844, was $38,452,987. There were 40,672 
children of school age in the Territory, of whom 29,792 were enrolled in public 
schools. In 1880 the Territory expended $170,887 for public instruction. 




The Territory of Washington lies between 45° 32' and 49°' 
north latitude, and 117° and 124° 28' west longitude. It 
embraces an area of 69,180 square miles. Its population 
numbered, in 1885, including 3186 Chinese and 4400 In- 
dians 130,465. On the north and north-west it is bounded 
by British Columbia, on the east by Idaho Territory, on 
the south by Oregon, from which the Columbia River separates it along a 
greater portion of the boundary line, and west by the Pacific Ocean. 

The Cascade Mountains and the Columbia River (the latter entering the 
Territory on the north-east) divide the domain into Western Washington, 
west of the Cascade Mountains; Middle Washington, between the Cascade 
Mountains and the Columbia River; and Eastern Washington, east of the 
Columbia River. The western half and the south-eastern portion of the 
Territory are mountainous. The Cascade range extends entirely across the 
Territory from north to south. In this range are the lofty peaks of Mount 
Rainer, 12,300 feet in altitude; Mount St. Helen and Mount Adams, each 
about 9500 feet; and Mount Baker, 10,700 feet above the sea, all covered 
with perpetual snow. In the western part of the Territory the climate is 
mild, there being very little winter weather there. Cattle pasture the year 
round. There is a dry and a rainy season, each of about six months' dura- 
tion. The river valleys are very fertile. 

The country about Puget's Sound was for centuries a favorite resort of 
the Indian tribes of the Pacific coast. The Strait of San Juan de Fuca was 
first entered in 1592 by a German navigator of that name employed in the 
Spanish naval service. Captain Gray, in command of the ship Cohinibia, of 
Boston, discovered Gray's Harbor, in south-western Washington, at the 
mouth of the Columbia River, in 1792 (see Oregon); and Lewis and Clarke 
reached that point in their explorations in 1805. 

The Hudson's Bay Fur Company, grasping at a monopoly of trade with 
the natives, attempted to take possession of the Territory from 1828 to 184K 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 519 

The United States held a double title to the region watered by the Columbia 
River and its tributaries — namely, from the Spanish, and by the discovery of 
Captain Gray. 

In 1845 a few American families, who had crossed the Great Plains and 
the mountain ranges, formed the first permanent settlement in the Territory. 
Other settlers followed, and in March, 1853, Congress, by act, created the 
Territory of Washington and appointed Isaac I. Stevens the first Governor. 

The act of Congress, February 14, 1859, ^^r the admission of Oregon into 
the Union as a State, added to the Washington Territory the region between 
the eastern boundary of that State and the Rocky Mountains, embracing the 




ISAAC I. STEVENS, FIRST GOVERNOR OF WASHINGTON TERRITORY. 

present Territory of Idaho and parts of Montana and Wyoming. The islands 
in Washington Sound, (formerly Gulf of Georgia) were claimed as a part of 
the British possessions. After long disputes the question of eminent domain 
was referred to the Emperor of Germany, who, in 1872, decided that they 
belonged to the United States. In 1873 these islands were formed into the 
county of San Juan. The capital of the Territory is Olympia, situated at the 
southern projection of Puget's Sound. It was first settled in 1846, and was 
incorporated and made the capital in 1859. 

Wheat and oats are the principal cereal crops of Washington. In 1884 
the Territory produced 7,412,000 bushels of wheat, over 3,000,000 bushels of 
oats, and 800,000 bushels of barley. The climate appears to be too cold for 



520 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST 



the successful cultivation of Indian corn. Sheep-raising is a growing in- 
dustry. The wool crop in 1884 was 8,000,000 pounds. 

Manufacturing and mining are beginning to be carried on quite exten- 
sively in Washington Territory. Its manufactured products in 1885 were 
valued at $5,000,000. The mineral resources of the Territory have not been 
developed. They are evidently very extensive. Vast beds of coal have been 
found there; also, the precious metals in various places. 

The lumber business is a great and growing industry. The forests of 
the Territory seem to be almost inexhaustible. Its salmon fisheries are 
assuming large proportions. The estimated value of salmon packed in 1884 
was over $1,000,000. 

The assessed value of the real and personal property of the Territory 
in 1885 was $50,215,581. No Territorial debt. The amount of money ex- 
pended for public instruction in 1884 was $287,500. The public-school sys- 
tem is said to be the best of any of the Territories. It established a Terri- 
torial University at Seattle in 1862, and there are several high schools at 
various places. 

This Territory was created a State on February 22d, 1889. 






Dakota Territory lies between latitude 42° 30' and 49* 
north, and longitude 96° 20' and 104° west. It is 
bounded on the north by the Dominion of Canada; on 
the east by Minnesota, from which it is separated by the 
Mississippi River; on the south by Nebraska, and on the 
west by Wyoming and Montana Territories. It em- 
braces an area of 149,100 square miles. From north to south it is 450 miles, 
and from east to west 350 miles. The population of Dakota in 1885 was 416, 
000, and was rapidly increasing. Of that number over 2000 were colored, 
including 1400 Indians and 238 Chinese. It also contained 27,108 tribal 
Indians. 

A greater portion of Dakota belongs to the region known as the Great 
Plains, east of the Rocky Mountains. It occupies the most elevated section 
of country between the Arctic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, forming to a 
great extent the water-shed of the two great basins of North America — those 
of the Missouri and the Mississippi rivers — and the tributaries of Hudson's Bay. 
This water-shed is nearly 1600 feet above the sea. The Missouri River trav- 
erses the Territory from north-west to south-east. The country east and 
north of this river is a beautiful, rich and undulating prairie, free from marshes, 
swamps or sloughs, dotted with numerous lakes, and traversed by many 
streams — tributaries of the Missouri. 

When the French first visited this region (a part of the old Louisiana do- 
main), in the 17th century, they found it inhabited by one of the most power- 
ful barbarian nations on the Continent. They were the Sioux or Dakotas, 
from whom the Territory derives its name. They occupied the vast wilder- 
ness extending from the Arkansas River in the south to Lake Winnepeg in the 
north, and westward to the slopes of the Rocky Mountains. In wars with the 
French the northern Dakotas were pushed down the Mississippi, and, driving 
ofT the occupants of the buffalo plains, took possession. Others remained 
on the shores of Lake St. Peter. 



522 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 

In 1837 the Dakotas ceded to the United States their lands east of the 
Mississippi River, and in 1851 they ceded 35,000,000 acres west of that river 
for $3,000,000. The violations of treaties with the barbarians by the United 
States Government or its agents, exasperated the Dakotas or Sioux, and 
kept them in a state of chronic hostility, which finally developed into actual 
war. 

One of these treaties made the Black Hills of Dakota and Wyoming a 
reservation for the Indians, but, gold having been discovered there, efforts 
were made to induce the " wards of the nation" to go to the Indian Territory. 
They refused. Late in 1874 a bill was introduced into Congress which pro- 




WILLIAM JAYNE, FIRST GOVERNOR OF DAKOTA, 

\ 

vided for the extinguishment of the Indian title to so much of the Black 
Hills as lay within the Territory of Dakota. 

In the spring of 1874, Government geologists were sent to the Black Hills 
to survey that region. They were escorted by troops. The Indians, rightly 
suspecting more perfidy, prepared for war. To suppress these preparations 
a strong military force was sent into Montana Territory and adjoining regions 
in 1876. A campaign against the barbarians was arranged. Troops were to 
move simultaneously in three divisions — one from the Department of the 
Platte, another from the Department of Dakota, and a third from the Terri- 
tory of Montana. The whole expedition was under the command of General 
Alfred H. Terry. 

Learning that the hostile Indians were concentrated in large numbers near a 
tributary of the Yellowstone River, early in June, the three armies proceeded 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 523 

to close upon them. General George A. Custer's command arrived first, and 
discovered an immense Indian camp on a plain. He had been instructed to 
await the arrival of other troops to co-operate before making an attack ; but 
Custer, inferring that the Indians were moving off, directed one of his Colonels, 
Reno, to attack them at one point with seven companies of cavalry, whilst he 
dashed off with about 300 mounted men to attack at another point. A ter- 
rible struggle ensued (June 25, 1876) with a body of Indians, in number about 
five to one of the white men. They were commanded by an educated, bold 
and skillful chief named Sitting Bull. Custer, and almost his entire command, 
were slain in the encounter. 

The Government now sent a large military force into the region of the 
Black Hills, for the purpose of utterly crushing the power of the Dakotas. 
Sitting Bull and his followers, anticipating severe chastisement, at length 
withdrew into the British possessions. The fugitive Indians have mostly 
returned to the old hunting grounds, but the powerful nation of Dakotas 
have forever lost their puissance. 

The first permanent settlements of white people in Dakota were made in 
1859, iri what are now Clay, Union, and Yankton counties, in the extreme 
South-eastern part of the Territory. That Territory was organized in March, 
1 861, when it comprised the Territories of Montana and Wyoming. William 
Jayne was appointed the first Governor. Yankton was made its capital. 
There the first Territorial Legislature met in March, 1862. The next year 
a part of the Territory was included in Idaho. In 1868 a large portion of 
Dakota was taken to form the Wyoming Territory. Emigration to this 
inchoate State was limited until 1866. After the pacification of the Indians, 
ten years later, a larger and a continuous stream of emigrants has flowed into 
the Territory. The seat of Government was removed to Bismarck, on the 
left bank of the Missouri, at the centre of the Territory, in 1883. 

Efforts have been made to have Dakota admitted into the Union as a 
State, either in whole or in part. The latest proposition made was to divide 
the Territory and make two States. 

The agricultural resources of Dakota are immense. Nearly the whole 
Territory is very fertile. The wheat crops are marvellous, especially in North- 
ern Dakota. There are farms in that region of from 50,000 to 75,000 acres, 
which yield from twenty-five to thirty bushels of wheat to the acre. Southern 
Dakota is also an excellent grain region, while Central Dakota is generally 
better adapted to grazing. 



524 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST, 



Flour and lumber have been thus far (1888) the principal manufacturing 
industries of Dakota. Mining, except for coal, is confined to the Black Hills. 
So early as 1881 there were more than 1800 miles of railway in Dakota, includ- 
ing three parallel lines which cross the Territory. The assessed valuation of 
the real and personal property of the Territory, in 1885, was $106,000,000. Its 
commerce is wholly internal. 

The facilities for public instruction have not quite kept pace with the 
increase in population. In 1884 there were over 70,000 children of school age 
in the Territory, and that year $1,748,562 were spent in the support of public 
schools. There are several colleges and academies, and seminaries for young 
women. 

This Territory was divided and erected into two States — North Dakota 
and South Dakota — on February 22d, 1889. 




C^ SC4t 




^'■'^^opS^^''' 




Arizona is in the extreme south-western portion of the 
Republic, lying on the borders of Mexico. It is be- 
tween latitude 31° 20' and 37° north, and longitude 109° 
and 114° 35' west. Nevada and Utah are its nearest 
neighbors on the north, New Mexico on the east, Mex- 
ico on the south, and California and Nevada on the west. 
Its area embraces 113,020 square miles. Its population in 1880 was 40,440, 
of whom 3493 were Indians and 1630 Chinese. There were 21,000 tribal Indi- 
ans. Among the latter are the Apaches, the most troublesome, who numbered 
about 5000. The Moquis, numbering about 1800, are probably descendants 
of the ancient Aztec population. They are more peaceable and intelligent 
than any other of the barbarians in the Territory. 

The surface of Arizona is generally elevated and mountainous, numerous 
ranges traversing it from the north-west to the south-east. It is composed of 
wide plateaus, gradually sloping from an elevation of 7000 feet above the 
sea, in the north, to not more than 100 feet in the south. Among the moun- 
tains are peaks towering to the height of 12,000 to 14,000 feet. These moun- 
tain ranges are traversed by rivers which have cut cafions from looo to 6000 
feet in depth. The whole Territory is drained by the Columbia River and 
its affluents. The whole course of that river through the Territory is through 
the Grand Caflon, which is from 400 to 5000 feet below the plateau. It fall& 
in the course of 400 miles, over 3000 feet. 

So early as 1526 Don Jos^ de Vasconcellos, a follower of Cortez, crossed 
the centre of this Territory toward the Great Cafton, He and subsequent 
Spanish explorers found on the banks of the rivers ruins of cities, deserted 
centuries before apparently. The builders were undoubtedly Aztecs or 
Toltecs, who were driven away by northern invaders. Evidences of quite a 
high degree of civilization appeared everywhere. 

Spanish missionaries made settlements in Arizona as early as 1687. They 



526 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 

were chiefly on the Lower Colorado and Gila rivers. The history of their 
missions is similar to those in Nevada and California. 

Arizona formed a part of Mexico until its purchase by the United States 
in 1850. It was created a Territory by act of Congress February 24, 1863, 
when John A. Gurley was appointed its first Governor. In that act its area 
was described as comprising " all of the United States lands west of longi- 
tude 109° to the California line." Since then the north-west corner has 
been ceded to Nevada. 

One of the descendants of the Zuni, or most ancient race who inhabited 
Arizona, gave to a pioneer the following account of their origin, as preserved 
in their traditions : 

" In the beginning a race of men sprang out of the Earth, as plants arise 
and come forth in the spring. This race increased until it spread over the 
whole earth, and, after continuing for countless ages, passed away. 

" The Earth then remained without people a great length of time, until, 
ally, the Sun had compassion on the Earth, and sent a celestial maiden to 
re-people the globe. The young goddess was called Arizonia, the name signi- 
fying " Maiden Queen." Arizonia dwelt upon the earth in lonely solitude a 
great length of time, until, at a certain time, basking in the Sun, a drop of dew 
fell from Heaven and rested upon her. In due time Arizonia blessed the 
world with twins, a son and daughter, and these became the father and mother 
of the Zuni Indians, and from this tribe came all other races of men — the 
Zunis being the only pure, original stock — the Children of the Sun." 

Arizona abounds in precious metals, especially silver. Mining is its most 
important industry. The mines of both gold and silver are very numerous. 
The scarcity of wood and water makes mining expensive. Agricultural labors 
are, as a rule, not very productive. The irrigable lands, properly managed, 
will produce very large crops of cereals and roots. Semi-tropical fruits are 
very plentiful. Many cattle are raised in the Territory. 

There is, 'unfortunately, little manufacturing carried on in the Territory. 
The assessed value of the real and personal property there in 1880 was $9,- 
270,214. It had at that time 4212 pupils in its public schools, and spent that 
year for the support of public instruction $61,172. To these schools the 
Moquis contribute some children. They live in villages, and have some man- 
ufactures 





The Territory of Idaho is one of the northern provinces of 
the RepubHc on the Pacific slope. It is irregular in shape. 
For a short distance, on the north, it is bounded by British 
Columbia, east by Montana and Wyoming, south by Utah 
and Nevada, and west by the State of Oregon and Wash- 
ington Territory. It contains an area of 84,800 square 
miles. Its population in 1885 was about 75,000. Its capital is Bois^ City, 
the most populous town in the Territory, the inhabitants of which, in 1880, 
numbered about 2000. 

Idaho is a mountainous country. The Rocky Mountains extend for about 
250 miles along its eastern and north-eastern boundaries. Within the bounds 
of the Territory is Fremont's Peak, the highest of the Rocky Mountain ranges 
in the United States. On Florence Mountain, 2000 feet below its summit, 
is the town of Florence. It is over 11,000 feet above the sea, and is believed 
to be the highest town in the United States. With the exception of Bear 
River, in the extreme south-eastern region, the entire drainage of Idaho is 
into the Columbia River. The Bear River is a tributary to the great Salt 
Lake in Utah. A small portion of the Yellowstone Park occupies a little 
of south-eastern Idaho. The whole of that region is volcanic. 

It is believed that the only white men who trod the soil of Idaho pre- 
vious to the year 1850, with the exception of some missionaries in 1842, and 
the bold explorers with Lewis and Clarke (see Oregon) early in the century, 
were trappers and miners. The latter, prospecting for the precious metals, 
discovered some in 1852 in the extreme northern part of the Territory. At 
first not many miners and settlers were attracted to that region ; but ac- 
counts of the evident mineral wealth of the country, which reached the 
settlers in California and Oregon in i860, drew many adventurers thither. 
Very soon there was a population in Idaho of 20,000, and in the spring of 
1863 Congress erected the Territory of Idaho. William H. Wallace was 
appointed its first Governor. Previous to that act it had formed a part of 



528 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 

Oregon, and embraced the Territories of Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Nebraska 
and Western Dakota. In 1864 Montana was set off from it. 

The mineral wealth of Idaho is believed to be enormous. Mines of gold 
and silver are found at the sources of all the rivers, and in every county in 
the Territory. Lead also is found, and there are valuable deposits of bitumi- 
nous coal. 

Wheat and oats are the leading agricultural products of Idaho. Farm 
animals and sheep are found there in considerable numbers. Mining is the 
leading industry. 

This Territory ranks fifth among the States and Territories in the order 
of production of the precious metals. Up to 1885 it had furnished the 
United States Mint with gold and silver valued at nearly $30,000,000. 

The manufactures of Idaho are inconsiderable. In 1881 there were 
about 250 miles of railway in the Territory; now the Northern Pacific Railway 
runs through its northern part, and another railway passes through its south- 
ern part. 

The assessed value of the taxable property in the Territory in 1880 was 
$6,440,876. It has a good public-school system, and the schools are liberally 
supported. 

Idaho is an Indian word. Its correct pronunciation is Id-ah'-o. 

Idaho was admitted as a State July 3d, 1890. 





Montana Territory is one of the extreme northern Ter- 
ritories of the Republic, lying between latitude 44° 6' 
and 49° north, and longitude 104° and 1 16° west. Its 
area is 14,608 square miles. Its northern boundary is 
the Dominion of Canada ; on the east is the Territory 
of Dakota; on the south is Wyoming and Idaho, and on 
the west is also Idaho. 

The general surface of Montana is mountainous, with some fine and fertile 
valleys. It is abundantly timbered with pine, spruce and other trees. The 
main range of the Rocky Mountains, with detached spurs, crosses the Terri- 
tory. In the eastern part is a long valley of the Yellowstone River, with 
mountain walls on each side, said to be fertile. The Missouri River rises 
near the south-western corner of the Territory, and makes a circuitous course 
through the whole extent of the province, and on its eastern border it enters 
the Territory of Dakota. Some portions of the Territory present undulating 
prairies, dotted with clumps of timber. The climate is salubrious and the 
water pure. 

There were a few missionaries, hunters and trappers in the Territory 
several years before its organization, but there were no really permanent set- 
tlements established before the discovery of the precious metals there, in 
1 861, when emigrants flocked thither in large numbers, some from the east, 
but a greater portion from the region of the Pacific coast. Gold, silver, 
copper, iron and lead are found in all parts of the mountain districts. A 
larger portion of the vast mineral wealth of the Territory undoubtedly remains 
to be developed. 

By act of Congress, in May, 1864, the Territory of Montana was created, 
and Virginia City was made its capital. That city is on the eastern slope of 
the Rocky Mountains, 6000 feet above the sea. Sidney Egerton was ap- 
pointed the first Governor of this Territory. It was settled only the year 
before, in the vicinity of a rich gold mine which had just been drained, and 



530 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 

from which has since been taken gold valued at more than $40,000,000. It 
remained the capital until January, 1875, when the seat of Government was 
transferred to Helena, fifteen miles east of the summit of the Rocky Moun- 
tains. This city had a population, in 1885, estimated at 8000. It is in the 
midst of rich agricultural valleys and productive mines of precious metals. 

The principal agricultural productions of Montana are wheat and oats. 
In 1880 it produced 469,648 bushels of wheat and 900,915 bushels of oats, while 
of Indian corn only 5649 bushels were raised. Cattle and sheep-raising is an 
active industry in the Territory. In 1880 there were 172,387 cattle, 184,277 




^^\^^ 



' p 



SIDNEY EDGERTON, FIRST GOVERNOR OF MONTANA, 

sheep, and 10,278 swine. The wool-clip that year yielded 1,000,000 pounds. 
All of these products have been largely increased since, especially the area 
of wheat culture. 

Manufactures are becoming important in the Territory. The value of 
the aggregate products in 1880 was about $2,000,000. The North Pacific 
Railway runs through the Territory. 

The assessed value of taxable property in 1880 was $18,609,802. Liberal 
provision is made for public instruction. 

Montana derives its name from the mountainous character of the Terri- 
tory. 

This Territory was created a State on February 22d, 1889. 





The latest organised Territory of the United States is 
Wyoming, one of the Rocky Mountain provinces. It 
lies between latitude 41° and 45° north, and longitude 
104° and 111° west. It embraces an area of 97,890 
square miles, and a population in 1880 of 20,789, of 
whom 1352 were colored, including 914 Chinese and 140 
Indians, The Territory is bounded on the north by Montana, east by Dakota 
and Nebraska, south by Colorado and Utah, and west by Utah, Idaho and 
Montana. 

A larger part of the Territory is mountainous. The main ranges of the 
Rocky Mountains, entering it at the north-west, cross the Territory in a 
south-easterly direction, into Colorado. The Snow Mountain range has the 
Valley of the Yellowstone on the west and that of the Big Horn on the east.. 
The Black Hills, which constitute the eastern foot-hills of the Rocky Moun- 
tains, occupy the eastern portion of the Territory and extend into Dakota. 
The highest mountain top in the Territory is Fremont's peak, on the border of 
Montana. Around this peak are the sources of some of the principal affluents 
of the Columbia and Colorado rivers. The whole of Wyoming has an eleva- 
tion of from 3000 to 8000 feet above the sea. The Laramie Plain, 5000 to 6000 
feet above the ocean, affords a most excellent grazing region of vast extent. 

The Yellowstone National Park is almost wholly within the Territory of 
Wyoming. It is one of the most remarkable regions on the globe for its 
wonderful curiosities of nature. It is only a very few years since this 
marvellous " wonder-land " was made positively known to the civilized world- 
There have been for three-fourths of a century vague rumors of hot springs,, 
mud springs, volcanoes, etc., in the heart of the continent, but they were 
regarded as wild tales of excited or untrustworthy men. 

Probably the first white man who visited this region was John Colter, a 
member of the expedition of Lewis and Clarke (see Oregon). He returned 
to it after his discharge from service, and his narrative of its volcanic wonders 



532 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST: 



caused it to be spoken of in derision as " Colter's Hell." Two other adven- 
turers in that region (James Bridges and Robert Meldrum) described the 
geysers and hot springs in 1844, but their stories were regarded as pure 
romances. It was described in print in 1847, ^"^ again in 1870. The latter 
account carried with it such an aspect of truthfulness that an expedition was 
organized the same year to explore the region. It was conducted by General 
Washburne, who had been appointed Surveyor-General of Wyoming Terri- 
tory. The truth of the wild tales was officially attested, and excited great 
interest in both hemispheres. 

In 1 871 a well-organized scientific corps, under Professor Hayden, made 




JOHN A. CAMPBELL, FIRST GOVERNOR OF WYOMING TERRITORY. 



a careful exploration of this remarkable region. In February, 1872, Congress 
passed an act reserving 3312 square miles, chiefly in the north-western corner 
of Wyoming, withdrawing it from " settlement, occupancy or sale," under 
the laws of the United States, dedicating and setting it apart as a public 
park and pleasure-ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people. Its 
general elevation averages about 8000 feet. The region is so elevated that 
it can scarcely ever be available for agricultural purposes. 

Probably the oldest white settlement in Wyoming is that at Fort 
Laramie, where a fur trading-post was established in 1834. It was pur- 
chased by the United States in 1849, ^^^ there Fort Laramie was built and 
has since been garrisoned. The Territory was organised by Congress on July 
-25, 1868, out of portions of Dakota, Idaho and Utah, the larger portion 



ITS STATES AND TERRITORIES. 533 

consisting of Western Dakota. John A. Campbell was appointed the first 
Governor. The form of Government is similar to that of other Territories. 
Women possess the right of suffrage, and exercise it ; they sit also on juries, 
and hold elective offices. 

There have been no severe contests with Indians in Wyoming, except in 
1876, when the Dakotas of the Black Hills region almost totally destroyed 
the command of General Custer near the waters of Big Horn River. (See 
Dakota}) 

About 5,000,000 of the 62,000,000 acres of Wyoming are arable land, and 
about 35,000,000 acres are available for grazing. Both gold and silver abound 
in the Territory, and there are extensive coal-fields near the line of the Union 
Pacific Railway. Wheat and oats are the chief cereal productions. Sheep- 
raising is becoming a prominent industry, and cattle-raising much more 
prominent. So early as the census of 1880 there were 278,000 cattle in the 
Territory, 12,000 horses, and more than 140,000 sheep. 

Manufactures are yet (1888) somewhat limited. The Union Pacific Rail- 
way passes through Wyoming, of which 464 miles are in the Territory. The 
assessed value of real and personal property in 1885 was $30,717,250. There 
is an efificient system of public instruction in the Territory. 

Cheyenne City is the capital of Wyoming. It had a population in 1880 
of 3456. It is at an elevation of over 6000 feet above the sea. Its name is 
derived from that of a tribe of Indians which inhabited that region. 

This Territory was admitted as a State July 3d, 1890. 




Isolated from the rest of the territory of the United States, and in 
the extreme north-western portion of North America, is a vast region pos- 
sessed by the Great Republic of the West, and known as Alaska. It Hes 
north of the parallel of 50° 40' north latitude, and west of the meridian of 
140° west longitude. It includes many littoral islands, and the group known 
as the Aleutian Islands. Its area is estimated at 577,390 square miles. Its 
shore line, including bays and rivers, is estimated at 25,000 miles. 

The mountains of Alaska are a continuation of the Coast, Cascade, and 
Rocky Mountains (see California and Oregon), with outlying spurs. Some of 
the mountain peaks are very elevated. That of Mount St. Elias is estimated 
at 18,000 to 19,500 feet. Mount Fairweather is almost as high. There are 
several active volcanoes, some of them attaining an altitude of 10,000 feet. 
The Aleutian Archipelago, extending towards Asia from the shores of 
Alaska, are the summits of a mountain range. They form a curve, southward, 
westward and northward, from the extremity of the great peninsula to 
Behring's Island, a distance of 1075 miles. They constitute a most wonder- 
ful range of volcanic islands. The six larger ones are inhabited. 

The principal river in the District is the Yukon. It is 2000 miles in 
length, and is navigable for nearly 1500 miles. The climate is comparatively 
mild, the mean temperature being but a little lower than that in Maine and 
New Brunswick. 

Alaska was formerly known as " Russian America," the Muscovites hav- 
ing acquired the right of possession by its discovery, in 1 741, by Vitus 
Behring, a Danish navigator in the Russian service. In 1725 he had com- 
manded a scientific expedition to the Sea of Kamschatka. He ascertained 
that Asia and America were separated by a strait, which now bears his name. 
This problem Peter the Great had anxiously sought to solve. On a second 
voyage to the same region in 1741 he discovered a part of the North American 
continent. Attempting to return to Kamschatka, his vessel was wrecked on 
an island which bears his name, where he died. 



THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 535 

Russian fur-traders founded a settlement at Sitka, or New Archangel, the 
first in the District. The country was granted to the Russian Fur Company 
in 1799 by t^^ Emperor Paul VHI., and was a sort of independent province 
under their rule. The Company was invested by the Czar with the exclusive 
right of hunting and fishing in the American waters. The charter of this 
Company expired in 1867, when the Russian Government declined to renew it. 

In 1865-67 Alaska was explored by a scientific corps, sent to select a 
route for a Russo-American telegraph line, designed to extend across 




LOVELL HARRISON ROUSSEAU, COMMISSIONER OF ALASKA. 

Behring's Strait into Asia. That project was abandoned in consequence of 
the successful laying of the Atlantic Telegraph Cable. 

Early in 1867 negotiations for the purchase of that Russian possession 
were begun. On May 20, the same year, a treaty to that effect was ratified 
by the United States Senate, and Alaska became a part of the domain of the 
American Republic, at a cost of $7,200,000 in gold. In October the same year 
it was formally taken possession of by United States Commissioner, General 
Lovell H. Rousseau. The laws of the United States were extended over the 
territory in July, 1868 — such as related to Customs, Navigation and Com- 
merce. A collection district was established, also a military district, at- 
tached to the Department of California. Sitka was made the capital. It is 
the most northern harbor on the Pacific coast. 



536 THE GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE WEST. 

Alaska has never been organized as a Territory of the United States. 
In May, 1884, Congress created a District Government for the territory, with 
a Governor (John H. Kinkead), and a District Court, sitting alternately at 
Sitka, the capital, and at Wrangel. The laws are those of Oregon. 

Gold and silver, copper and iron, semi-bituminous coal, petroleum, and 
other minerals are found in Alaska. The islands and the Sitkan Peninsula 
produce wheat and other cereals, and some root crops. By far its greatest 
products are from the fisheries — the fur-seal and salmon. In these pursuits 
thousands of persons are employed. The fur seal and the other are very 
abundant. In 1880 they yielded to the United States Government a revenue 
of $300,000. The waters of Alaska swarm with salmon, halibut, cod, and 
other fishes. 

The white inhabitants of the District do not exceed, probably, at this 
time (1888), 15,000. There are many Creoles, Indians, and Eskimos, number- 
ing, probably 60,000. The Aleutian Islands (six of them) are peopled with a 
mixed population — hardy, industrious, and honest. 




OKLAHOMA. 

PORTION of the domain in the heart of the Indian Territory 
(which see), having been ceded to the United States, Congress 
erected it into a Territory, named Oklahoma, and on April 22d, 
1889, it was opened for settlement. On that day a large multitude of intending 
settlers, gathered on its borders the previous night, rushed into the Territory 
to secure a quarter section of land each. It was a scene of wild excitement. 
An improvised city which had grown upon the site of a government land-office 
called Guthrie, was made the capital of this Territory, with proper offices. 

Oklahoma is, at present, irregular in shape, which other expected cessions 
of Territory may correct. It is about the size of the States of Rhode Island 
and Delaware combined — something like 3,000,000 acres of land. It is com- 
posed of undulating plains and elevated prairies, and is watered by abundant 
streams. The climate is mild and salubrious. It is said to be well wooded. 
Three important streams traverse the Territory. The vegetation is much like 
that of Northern Texas. The only railway entering the Territory at present 
is the Atchison, Topeka and Santa F^. 



OFFICIAL CENSUS OK 1890- 



THE FOLLOWING TABLE GIVES THE POPULATION OF EACH CITY OF THE UNITED 
STATES THAT IS SKETCHED IN THE PRESENT WORK, AND 
ALSO INCLUDES ALL CITIES HA TING 50,000 
INHABITANTS AND OVER. 




29 
42 

28 
7 
6 
4 

11 

41 

50 

53 
3 
9 

10 

30 

OS 

4S 

27 

58 

15 

56 

40 

67 

44 

62 
54 
36 
71 
19 
23 
73 
52 
57 
58 
20 
51 
60 
43 
16 ' 



Albany, N.Y., 
Atlanta, Ga., 
Allegheny, Pa., 
Baltimore, Md., 
Boston, Mass., 
Brooklyn, N.Y., 
Buffalo, N.Y., 
Cambridge, Mass., 
Camden, N,J., 
Charleston, S.C., 
Chicago, 111., 
Cincinnati, O. , . 
Cleveland, O., 
Columbus, O., . 
Davenport, la. 
Dayton, O. , 
Denver, Colo., 
Des Moines, la., 
Detroit, Mich.,. 
Evansville, Ind., 
Fall River, Mass.,. 
Galveston, Tex. 
Grand Rapids, Mich., 
Hampton, Va. , 
Harrisburg, Pa., . 
Hartford, Conn., 
Indianapolis, Ind., 
Jacksonville, Fla., 
Jersey City, N.J., . 
Kansas City, Mo., 
Keokuk, la., . 
Lincoln, Neb., . 
Los Angeles, Cal. , 
Lowell, Mass., . 
Louisville, Ky., 
Lynn, Mass., 
Manchester, N. H. 
Memphis, Tenn. , 
Milwaukee, Wis., . 



94,640 
65,514 

104, 967 
435,151 
446,507 
804,377 
254.457 
69 837 
58,274 
54,592 
1,098,576 
296,309 
261,546 
90,398 
28,500 
58,868 
106,670 
50,067 
205,069 
50,674 
74,351 
29,118 
64,147 
2,800 
40, 164 
53,182 
r07,445 
17,160 
163,987 
132,416 
14,075 
55,491 
50,394 
77,605 
161,005 
55,684 
43,983 
64,586 
204,150 



90, 758 
37,409 
78,682 
332,313 
362,839 
566, 663 
155,134 
52,669 
41,659 
49,984 
503, 185 
255,750 
160,146 
51,647 
21,831 
38,678 
35,629 
22,408 
116,340 
29,280 
49,006 
22,248 
32,016 
2,684 
30,726 
42,551 
75,056 
10,927 
120,722 
55,785 
12,117 
13,008 
11,183 
59,475 
123,758 
38,274 
32,630 
33,592 
115,582 



Estimated. 



OFFICIAL CENSUS OF 1890, Cuntiiined. 



Numerical 
Eank. 


CITIES. 


1890. 


1880. 


18 


Minneapolis, ^linii 


104,738 


46,887 


GG 


Mobile, Ala., 


31,822 


29,132 


39 


Nashville, Tenn., ..... 


76,309 


43,461 


17 


Newark, N.J., . 


181,518 


136,508 


32 


New Haven, Conn., ..... 


85,981 


62,882 


13 


New Orleans, La. , .... 


241,995 


216,090 


1 


New York, N.Y., 


1,513,501 


1,206,299 


21 


Omaha, Neb., . . . . = 


139,526 


30,518 


37 


Paterson, N.J. , 


78,358 


51,061 


6$) 


Petersburg-, Va 


23,317 


21,656 


2 


Philailelphia, I'a., 


1,044,894 


847,170 


13 


Pittsburg, Pa., 


238,473 


156,389 


64 


Portland, Me., 


36,609 


33,810 




Portland, Or., 


t 72,079 


17,577 




Princeton, N. J 


* 3,940 


3,209 


25 


Providence, R. 1 . . . 


132,043 


104,856 


47 


Reading, Pa., 


.58,926 


43,278 


36 


Riehniond, Va. , 


80,838 


63,600 


22 


Rochester, N.Y., ..... 


138,327 


89,336 


57 


Salt Lake City, Utah, . , . . 


45,025 


20,768 


63 


San. Antonio, Tex 


38,681 


20,561 


8 


San Francisco, Cal., .... 


297,990 


233,959 




Savannah, Ga., 


41,762 


30,709 


34 


Scranton, Pa., 


83,450 


45,850 


58 


Springfield, Mass., 


44,104 


33,340 


72 


St. Augustine, Fla. , .... 


* 15,000 


12,117 


55 


St. Joseph, Mo., 


52,811 


32,431 


5 


St. Louis, Mo., 


460,357 


350,518 


24 


St. Paul, Minn., 


133,156 


41,473 


31 


Syracuse, N.Y 


87,877 


51,791 


35 


Toledo, 0. , 


82,652 


50,137 


49 


Trenton, N.J 


58,488 


29,910 


46 


Troy, N.Y., 


60,605 


56,747 


59 


Utica, N. Y., 


44.001 


33,914 


14 


Washington, D.C, 


229,796 


147,293 


65 


"Wheeling, W. Va 


35,052 


30,737 


45 


Wilmington, Del., 


61,437 


42,478 


70 


Wilmington, N. C, .... 


20,008 


17,350 


33 


Worcester, Mass., 


84,536 


58,291 



NOTE -.—The population of the several cities as given in the body of the M'ork for 
the years 1881 to 1889 inclusive, was in many instances based upon an estimate furnished 
by their respective Mayors, and not upon an actual enumeration. This fact, therefore, 
should be borne in mind in making a comparison of these figures with those of the 
" Official Census of 1890. " 



+ As given by the Mayor, including suburbs. 



* Estimated. 



OFFICIAL CENSUS OK 1S90. 



POPULATION OF THE STATES AND TERRITORIES. 
[From the Official Census of 1890.] 



Ntnuerical 
Bank. 


STATES AND TERRITORIES. 


1890. 


1880. 


Increase per Gent. 


17 


Alabama .... 


1,508,073 


1,363,505 


19.45 


48 


Arizona 




59,091 


40,440 


47.60 


34 


Arkansas 






1,125,385 


803,535 


40.23 


33 


California . 






1,304,003 


864,694 


39.24 


31 


(Jolorado 






410,975 


104,327 


111.49 


29 


Connecticut 








745,861 


622,700 


19.78 


43 


Delaware 








167,871 


146, 608 


14.50 


39 


Dist. of Coluinbiii 








239,796 


177,624 


29.37 


33 


Florida . 








390,435 


269,493 


44.88 


13 


Georf?ia 








1,834,366 


1,542,180 


18.95 


45 


Idaho 








84,239 


32,610 


158.29 


3 


Illinois 








3,818,536 


3,077,873 


24,06 


8 


IndiaiKi 








3,189,030 


1,978,301 


10.65 


10 


Iowa .... 








1,906,729 


1,624,615 


17.36 


19 


Kansas . 








1,423,485 


996, 096 


42.91 


11 


Kentucky . 








1,855,436 


1,648,690 


12.54 


35 


Louisiana 








1,116,828 


939, 94(5 


18.82 


30 


Maine 








660,361 


648,936 


1.75 


37 


Maryland 








1,040,431 


934,943 


11.28 


6 


Massachusetts . 








2,383,407 


1,783,085 


35.36 


9 


Michigan 








3,089,793 


1,636,937 


37.66 


20 


Minnesota . 








1,300,017 


780,773 


66.50 


21 


Mississippi 








1,384,887 


1,131,597 


13.55 


5 


Missouri 








2,677,080 


2,168,380 


33.46 


44 


Montana 








131,7()9 


39,159 


336. 50 


26 


Nebraska . 








1056,793 


452,402 


133.60 


49 


Nevada . 








44,327 


62,266 


d38.81 


33 


New Hampshire 








375,827 


346,991 


8.31 


18 


New Jersey . 








1,441,017 


1,131,116 


37.40 


43 


New Mexico 








144,862 


119,565 


31.16 


1 


New York 








5,981,934 


.5,082,871 


17.69 


16 


North Carolina 








1,617,340 


1,399,750 


15.54 


41 


North Dakota 








182,425 


* 




4 


Ohio .... 








3,666,719 


3,198,062 


14.65 


46 


Oklahoma 








61,701 


t 




38 


Oregon 








312,490 


174,763 


78.80 


3 


Pennsylvania 








5,248.574 


4,282,891 


33.55 


35 


Rhode Island . 








345,343 


276, .531 


34.88 


23 


South Carolina 








1,147,161 


995,577 


15.33 


37 


South Dakota . 








327,848 


* 




13 


Tennessee 








1,763,733 


1,542,359 


14.35 


7 


Texas .... 








3,333,330 


1,-591,749 


40.34 


40 


Utah .... 








306,498 


143,963 


43.44 


36 


Vermont 








333,305 


332,286 


d .03 


15 


Virginia 








1,648,911 


1,512,565 


9.01 


34 


Washington 








349,516 


75,116 


365.30 


•28 


West Virginia 








760,448 


618,457 


33.96 


14 


Wisconsin . 








1,683,691 


1,315,497 


37.99 


47 


Wyoming 








60,589 


20,789 


191.45 



Total 



63,480,540 50,155,783 



34,57 



Alaska and Indian Territory are not included in this enumeration. 

Two States formed from the territory of Dakota Population in 1880,-135,177. 
t New territory found in 1890. 



